


Playing Cupid

by 13luckystars



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Christmas AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2015-01-18
Packaged: 2018-02-27 15:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 38,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2697719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13luckystars/pseuds/13luckystars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years after graduating from Beacon Hills High School and moving away from the small town, Stiles is going back for his Christmas assignment from work. The most unsettling part is that he is going to be spending a lot of time with Derek Hale, who he hasn't seen since he graduated, and his twin daughters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sunday, November 30

It was Christmas time, the biggest time of the year in the North Pole, and Stiles Stilinski had a job to do. He was in charge of finding out what non-material things kids really wanted. With lists being written telling what toys they wanted the most out of every toy they had seen put on the market, everyone else's job at the North Pole was easy. No one ever wrote a list for Stiles's job, and that was why his job mainly started the month before Christmas Eve. While everyone else was doing last minute preparations to toys and wrapping, Stiles and his co-workers were sent across the world, stationed with different children, to find out what would make them happy. These children were the ones that didn't just want a doll or a toy truck, they were the ones who needed something more, something that couldn't be held or played with. So Stiles and his friends were disguised as children and sent to figure these children out. It wasn't the easiest job, but Stiles wouldn't have given it up for the world. And now, with Christmas just a month away, Stiles was ready to get that years assignment. 

On Sunday, when Stiles woke up, he knew exactly what the importance of the day was before he had even fully opened his eyes. He knew that as soon as he got out of the warmth of his bed, the last minute preparations of Christmas would be planned out and set in motion. Those last minute preparations were the worst of the year, and the most rewarding of the year, and Stiles felt sure that he would have a constant migraine from the moment his foot hit the cold floor that morning to the moment he climbed back under his own covers on Christmas Eve. 

A moment later, Stiles finally obtained the courage to get out of bed. The minute the tip of his toe hit the ground though, his phone started ringing. A groan tore from his chest as he reached out, grabbed the phone, and answered it. Stiles hadn't even opened his eyes yet. 

“What?” He barked, knowing the kind of tone he would receive before it even left the person on the other ends mouth. 

“What kind of attitude is that to have the day you get your Christmas assignment Stiles?” Lydia answered, using her vast power to make Stiles feel stupid and young. 

“We aren't elves Lydia; we can be upset if we want to.” Stiles waited for a response, felt it coming, but ended up preparing for nothing. 

“What did you want anyway?” He asked instead of waiting for her comment. 

“Well Stiles,” Lydia said and Stiles could imagine the expression she had on her face. The strawberry blonde woman would have her eyebrows raised, eyes looking up, seeming like she was thinking, and would have a hand up near her mouth. This was all done to mock Stiles. “It is a month before Christmas, so where do you think you should be?” 

She gave him no time to answer, just plowed right on. Stiles hadn’t expected her to want his answer. 

“You should be in the conference room,” she said, “But you aren't. I bet you're just getting out of bed. Do you want to tell me why I have to call you Stiles?”

Stiles had gotten Lydia's message loud and clear; he was late on the most important day of the year and she was judging him. “How much time can you get me?”

“I'm raising my eyebrows Stiles.”

“Okay, okay,” Stiles said, rushing around, trying to find clean clothes to wear. “I'll be right there.”

This time Stiles was the one who wasn't waiting for an answer, so he hung up. Since this was a common way for the two of them to end a conversation, Stiles knew Lydia wouldn't be too upset with him. 

Now that he had basically been lectured about his timing by one of his best friends, the problem arose that he needed clean, appropriate clothing to wear, and he needed them quick. During that time of year, appropriate meant green, red, or holiday themed. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but the night before, when Stiles had gotten home, he had decided it would be a great idea to _not_ do his laundry. Stiles had walked into his house, had seen all of his Christmas Clothes in his To Be Washed pile, had thought about washing them, decided he would have time to do them the next morning before his conference, and had gone to bed. Now that he was in a mad dash to get to said conference, he was seeing his flawed logic. 

The entire time he was trying to get ready by finding something quick to eat, brush his teeth, and find something to wear, he could hear his phone ringing repeatedly. He knew it was Lydia, probably first telling him how long she had managed to get him and then counting down his time in between demands for him to get around faster. Each text message would say something different, and something increasingly demanding. Lydia just wasn't the type of person to send the same text over and over, no matter the extra work it gave her. Stiles guessed she took a sick thrill from her various text messages. 

Stiles didn't check the phone to read through the messages before sprinting out of his home. All he did was shove the thing in the pocket of his red hoodie. 

In essence, he was pretty happy with what he had found to wear. The white t-shirt was the only thing that he was completely positive that it was one hundred percent clean, but his khakis had only been worn once so the hoodie that he had been wearing on and off for the past few days was the dirtiest thing on his body. At least he had had the decency to put on deodorant and cologne to keep some of the smell down. He hadn't had time to shower, so that was his best hope. 

“Stilinski, what took you so long?” Lydia whisper-barked at him as he walked into the office building. 

“I had to find something to wear.”

Lydia rolled her eyes but didn't say anything to him before walking off in the direction of the conference room. Since he had no other choice than to follow her, he did. Stiles quickly noticed as they walked that what Lydia was wearing was not rumpled nor did it look like she had worn it recently. Stiles wasn't surprised since he knew that his habits and Lydia's were complete opposites, but it didn't help that what she was wearing didn't even look familiar. If Lydia was wearing something that she had owned previously, Stiles would have known since they saw each other every day. But no, the tight, red dress that accentuated Lydia's every curve looked like she had just bought it. This knowledge did not help Stiles's mood whatsoever. 

“The dress is new Stiles,” Lydia said without looking back at him. 

Stiles hated it when she did that, when she seemed to have read his mind, so instead of saying anything to her comment he just kept walking, even though he felt the warmth at the tips of his ears. 

When the two arrived at the door to the conference room, Stiles rushed ahead to open the door for Lydia like the gentleman, or coward as she liked to say, that he was. Lydia walked forward with her head held high and Stiles, knowing that his boss would know he was the reason that they were late, tried to sneak in behind her. He prayed that he would go unnoticed, but his prayers seemed to go unanswered. 

“Miss Martin, Mr. Stilinski, it is very nice of the two of you to finally join us,” said a deep voice from inside the conference room. 

Stiles didn't look up at the man as he took his seat. “I'm sorry Mr. Claus-” he started before being interrupted by the same voice. 

“Don't go into ramble mode Stiles, I know what happened and it is alright,” he paused, looking around at his group before going into his yearly speech. “Anyway, you all know that you will be getting your assignments today. Remember that if you know the parent or the children to tell us so that we can arrange for it properly. If you do not know the people you are assigned to, stay after so that we can arrange your cover story.”

The big man looked around again, waiting just in case anyone had any questions. When he saw everyone nodding, he pulled up a pile of Manila file folders and began giving them out to the person they were assigned to. Once everyone sitting around the table had their folder, the talking started up again. 

“Allison,” the man said, “Are you going to need any arrangements?” 

“Yes sir,” Allison replied. 

He went around the table addressing Scott, Jackson, Danny, Kira, and Lydia. Each of them gave the same answer that Allison gave, that they were going to need to have arrangements made so that they could get close to the kids they had been assigned to. Most of the time it meant that they were turned into children temporarily, sent to live with contacts in the area, and placed in the child's class so they could get to know them. Sometimes, other measures had to be taken. 

While everyone else was answering, Stiles looked down at the first page in his folder. He had the page laid out on the table in front of him, picked out from the others that held more, vital information. Right at the moment, he didn't care about those things, he only cared about the face that was staring up at him from the paper. He hadn’t seen the face in years, had barely thought about that face, but couldn't deny the affect it was having on him in the conference room. The green eyes, dark hair, and tanned skin looked like it had barely changed from when Stiles had seen it last his senior year of high school. He knew the man must have changed to be in this folder, and that he must have a family or at least a child, but Stiles couldn't believe it. How could he have been assigned to the child of Derek Hale, the one man he could not forget?

“Stiles?” Mr. Claus asked, sounding slightly worried, as if he had said the boy’s name multiple times with no response. “Are you going to need to make arrangements?”

“No,” Stiles replied, shaking his head without looking up at anyone. “I know the father.”

“Alright,” Mr. Claus said, clapping his hands together and sounding much more relieved than he had a moment ago. “The meeting is over, if you are set to leave you can go ahead.”

Stiles walked out of the room, not realizing that all of his friends still sat at the table. Without looking around himself, he walked back to his home and threw the file folder down on the table upon getting inside. He just could not believe his assignment. He hadn't seen Derek for so long and now he was supposed to get close to his child, the one he had with _someone else_ and act like he was happy for him. He sure as hell hoped that Derek was happy now, but at that moment he just couldn't imagine himself going to Derek's house, telling him some excuse as to why he's back in town, and then getting close to him, his wife, and his child. How was he even supposed to _do_ that? Stiles had known that his feelings for the older man had never really vanished, but he had tried not to give any thought to them because he had thought that he would never see the man again. Now he knew he should never have bet on that. 

After another ten minutes of freaking out, Stiles decided to look through the rest of the papers. It turned out that Derek had twin daughters named Ava and Bailey and they were six years old. According to the papers, Derek was divorced and the mother of the twins was none other than Kate Argent. Stiles sucked in a breath at a name, another one that he hadn't heard in a long time, and couldn't believe that Derek would have had kids with _her_. 

“Who did you get?” Scott said as he walked into Stiles's home. 

“Ava and Bailey Hale,” Stiles replied, not looking up from the papers.

“Hale?”

“Yeah, Hale, as in Derek Hale.”

“As in Derek Hale brooding extraordinaire that threatened to rip your throat out with his teeth on multiple occasions?”

“Yes Scott,” Stiles replied, finally looking up at his best friend and noticing that he looked like he was just getting started.

“As in Derek Hale the guy that shoved you against walls all of the time and hit your head on the steering wheel of your jeep?”

“Yes Scott.”

Scott looked at Stiles, tried to really look at him in order to see if his best friend was taking his assignment well or not. Once he knew that Stiles would be okay, he added his last “as in Derek Hale” line. “As in Derek Hale, the guy that you had a major crush on since the moment you met him?”

Stiles sighed. “Yes Scott, that Derek Hale. Are you done with that now?”

“Yeah,” Scott said with a wide grin, producing a container bursting with curly fries. 

“I love you,” Stiles said, reaching out for the fries only to have Scott pull them away from him. Stiles scrunched his face up in confusion toward his best friend. 

“I'm going to help you pack and you're going to help me pack.”

“Okay,” Stiles said, reaching out to take the curly fries from his friend’s hand just to have them pulled out of reach again. 

Scott smiled. “That time was just for fun,” he said, taking a seat next to Stiles at the table. 

“You're an asshole,” Stiles said around a mouthful of curly fries. 

“But you love me,” Scott sing-songed. 

Stiles decided that didn't deserve any kind of reply so he just kept reading through his folder and eating his food. Eventually, the two had read everything they had to read for their assignments, and all that was left for Stiles to do was to pack. 

“What arrangements did you make?” Stiles asked Scott awhile later as the two of them were packing bags for Stiles. He would need clothes, with an optional Christmas theme, toiletries, and his laptop and its accessories. Most of his things would be able to fit in two bags, but he always brought along an extra backpack just in case he needed to have anything with him. Since he had been doing this job for the last few years, and knew exactly what he was going to need, his packing didn't take much time. He knew, from experience, that Scott's would take a lot longer. In previous years, when they had both had assignments where they didn't know the people, they would spend the time from after the final arrangements were smoothed out at the meeting, which was usually about noon, to midnight just packing their things. When it came to packing to go somewhere where they were friends with someone close to their assignment, they had a list of what they needed, but when they didn't know what to expect, they had to pack everything they could think of on a just in case basis. Doing that was a much bigger pain in the ass, but it happened more often than not so the boys were more accustomed to it. 

“I have to be changed tomorrow morning,” Scott said with a sigh. “I'm going to be the new kid in the child's class and have to try to become friends with them.”

“That doesn't sound too bad,” Stiles said, even though he was lying through his teeth. Even though that was usually the arrangements that had to be made, none of them liked the option. Being turned into a child for a month was hell enough, but having to be put in a class full of children, and have to somehow convince everyone that you were also a child, was even worse. It was the hardest part of the job, even though it was very rewarding in the end. 

“You're lucky that you don't have to,” Scott said, putting the last of Stiles's things into a bag. 

Stiles shrugged. “I don't really know if I'm lucky or not.”

Scott looked at Stiles, raising his eyebrow. “Are you telling me that you would rather be turned into a child than get close to Derek again?”

“He probably won't even remember me Scott,” Stiles said, moving his bags next to the door. The two bags and the unpacked backpack would be left in front of the door until the next morning, when Stiles grabbed them before running out of the house. He already knew he would wake up late, no matter what he told himself and how early he set his alarm, he would wake up just early enough to change into jeans and a T-shirt, grab some kind of snack, and head out the door. That was the way that it had happened ever since he had taken the job, so he didn't expect it to change any time soon. The knowledge just meant that he would leave his bags where he could grab them, leave clothes out so he could change quickly, and put some kind of food out on the counter so he could grab it as he left. His routine wasn't perfect, or exactly favorable, but it worked for him as long as he kept all of his scattered details organized. 

Scott looked at his best friend like he didn't believe him, like he knew that Derek would remember Stiles even after all this time and would probably be able to pick him out of a crowd, but didn't comment on Stiles's stupid remark. He could get his revenge when it turned out that he was right. “Since we're done here, why don't we head to mine and get packing? It's going to be a long night.”

Stiles nodded and followed his friend out of the door, feeling glad that for one year he wasn't going to have to spend hours upon hours packing for an unknown destination.


	2. Monday, December 1

After a short plane ride the next morning, Stiles was back in his hometown. On the outside, it hadn't changed very much. When he passed the police station, he still saw the same station that his father had worked at, and he had spent a lot of time at. When he passed the hospital, it was still the same building that Stiles had done homework at, the same building where his mom had died. When he passed his childhood home, it was still home. Even though these places looked the same on the outside, Stiles knew that the inside told a different story. There would be new people working at the police station and the hospital, people who wouldn't know him, and there would be a new family in his home, with their pictures and decorations around the house.

Part of Stiles wanted to spend some time traveling around the town that he grew up in just to see what places had changed. He wanted to see if it was obvious that people other than his friends and their families were living in the houses he used to know, he wanted to go to the high school and see what teachers had retired and which ones were new, he wanted to go to every place he remembered so that he could look over their differences, but he knew he wouldn't. At least for his first night he knew that he was just going to get settled into the hotel that was probably going to be his home for the next month and he was probably going to do some research so he could find out where he could find Derek. For at least the first night, he wasn't going to do any sightseeing. Maybe he would as time passed, but that wasn't what he was here for, so it would be left as a thing on his to do list. 

When Stiles got to the hotel that was right on the edge of Beacon Hills, he checked in, happy that he saw no one that he recognized even though he hadn't thought he would. He then carried his small amount of luggage up to his room and settled in. With his pajamas on, he sat down on the queen sized bed with his laptop on his legs and opened a tab. It didn't take him long to find out where Derek lived, especially since he hadn't moved very far. When Stiles searched the man’s name the first thing to come up was an article talking about how the Hale house had finally been renovated and sent back to its original glory. Stiles knew that that would be where Derek and his family were now living, so he took care of his laptop and went to sleep. The next day, his reason for returning would be gotten seen to. 

...

The next morning Stiles got around and set out for Beacon Hills. He didn't quite have a plan of action for how he was supposed to find Derek, he knew where the man lived and where he worked but knew he couldn't just waltz in and say he was visiting, so he was hoping that somehow he would be able to just conveniently bump into the man. The only problem with that was that Stiles didn't know any of the places that Derek frequented. He figured though, since he had not previously put any time into thinking about how he was going to get close to Derek, he would go to the coffee place that he and his friends used to go to, of course that was his plan as long as the place was still there. 

Stiles found that the building did still have a coffee shop, but it was no longer the hole in the wall that it used to be. It had a new name, which meant it also had new ownership, and it had a new look, and new customers. Whoever had taken over the place had added in a lot more tables, a lot more colorful paintings depicting different scenes of nature, and a lot more electrical outlets. Pretty much every person in the place was plugged in; whether it was their phones, laptops, or other mobile devices. 

Upon walking in, and seeing everyone plugged in and talking, Stiles found a table that was empty and prayed that it would stay that way. He needed a few minutes to draw up a plan for his visit, and there was nowhere else that he knew of that he would be able to do that. 

A few minutes later Stiles had ordered his coffee and sat down at his chosen table, thanking god that it had stayed available for him. He too ended up sitting there with his eyes glued to his phone while taking sips from his coffee cup, but he was looking at maps and local hang out web pages to try and figure out where to go to find Derek. He didn't know what everyone else was doing, but he was pretty certain it wasn't what he was doing. 

After a while he had found a list of places to go, a few bars and quite a few places that had attractions for children, and he had figured out what he would say to the man when he saw him. If he had any luck, which he was taking the table thing as a sign that he did have some, he wouldn't make a fool of himself and Derek would let him get close to him and the girls. Thinking about it that way though, that he was “getting close” to Derek's daughters, sent an unhappy feeling through him. The wording sounded completely wrong. 

With his plan written down on his phone, and most of his coffee still in the cup, Stiles headed for the door. He wasn't really paying attention when he got to it and opened it, so when he started having a difficult time opening the door, he didn't think of doing anything but pushing on it harder. He just figured that the door was a little jammed; he didn't even think that there could be someone on the other side of it, which is of course what was really happening. 

With one last, hard shove, the door opened all the way and Stiles walked out of it in triumph. His triumph didn't last long since the moment he was fully through the door he was met with a glare he hadn't seen in years. That was when he realized that the door hadn't been a little stuck; there had been a person on the other side. 

“Oh my god, Derek,” Stiles said, looking at the man with wide eyes. 

“Stiles,” Derek gritted out. 

“I bet you're not very happy to see me right now,” Stiles replied sheepishly. 

“Not really, no.”

“Let me buy you some coffee?”

“As long as you don't assault me with any more doors.”

Stiles chuckled nervously, thinking that this meeting was not going how he had hoped, and walked back into the coffee shop. He couldn't believe after all the time he had spent figuring out a place that he was likely to find Derek and planning out what he was going to say, he ran into Derek, literally ran into him, at the coffee shop. He had been hoping to ease into this, especially since Derek had never really been his biggest fan, and get on Derek's good side. It felt like there was no way that was going to happen when he had already repeatedly hit Derek with a door. 

Derek ordered his coffee, which Stiles then paid for, and headed for a table. Without thinking, Stiles sat down across from Derek. The older man looked at him in confusion for a while, even though it didn't register with Stiles at all, but finally gave up when Stiles had just continued to stare blankly at him for five minutes straight. 

“So I guess since it looks like you are joining me for coffee I should ask what you're doing back in town.”

Stiles looked at Derek with wide eyes. “Crap, I didn't even think that you didn't want me to sit with you. I'll just go,” Stiles said, thinking about how he was now going to have to go back home and either get a new assignment or get changed into a kid because there was no way he was continuing with this one after the mess of a start. 

“No Stiles sit back down,” Derek said just as Stiles had stood from his seat. The other man obediently sat back down. “Are you going to answer my question?” Derek said a moment later, an eyebrow quirked at Stiles’s silence. 

“Which one was that?”

“What are you doing back in town?”

“Oh, right! Uh just visiting you know,” Stiles said, going for nonchalant but knowing that he was failing at it.

Derek raised both eyebrows this time. “Who are you visiting? Didn't you and all of your friends move together? And your father moved closer to you last year.”

“Uh yeah, I came back to see the town.”

“You're visiting Beacon Hills?” Derek asked, sounding like he didn't believe a word Stiles was saying. Which, Stiles remembered, he probably didn't because he could probably hear Stiles’s heartbeat hitching every time he opened his mouth. 

“Yup,” Stiles said, nodding and trying to hold back a gulp. 

“Alright, let’s pretend that's really what you're doing, then why are you doing that at this time of the year? Shouldn't you be spending it with your family and friends? How long are you staying here? And for that record, where are you staying?”

“I'm staying in the hotel for the next month,” Stiles replied, pretending he didn't hear Derek's first question. 

“The hotel? You're staying in the hotel for a month? You do realize that you'll be staying here for Christmas.”

“Yes I do.”

“Is there something that happened between you and your friends that you aren't sharing right now? Because I feel like that's the only possible reason that you would be staying in Beacon Hills, a place that you no longer have any connection to, through Christmas.”

“Nope, no fights, no deaths, no nothing. I just want to stay here for a month.” Stiles smiled at the end of the sentence, a big, cheesy smile, and hoped that Derek would just give up on all of the questions. 

Derek rolled his eyes, and Stiles silently cheered. “Alright whatever, I know you're not telling me something but I won't pry. But you're definitely not staying at the hotel, by yourself, for the next month and definitely not for Christmas.”

“What?” Stiles said, shaken from his mental congratulation party by Derek's words. “What do you mean I'm not staying there, I already paid for the next month and settled into my room.”

Derek rolled his eyes again. “I can see that you're still a little slow on the uptake,” he said, looking at Stiles, who was glaring at him, and waiting for the man to understand what he was trying to say. When Stiles didn't, he rolled his eyes again. “You're staying with me Stiles. There's no way I’m letting you stay in a hotel for Christmas, especially when I have plenty enough room for you.”

“Oh,” was all Stiles could say because mentally he was trying to figure out where this had gone from bad to good, when it had gone from Stiles going to get the first flight back to the North Pole to he was going to be living with Derek for the entire month. He wasn't completely sure, especially since he knew Derek knew he was lying about why he was there and the Derek he had known all those years ago probably would not have been so generous, room or no room. As the two of them walked out of the coffee shop and Stiles got into his rental car to lead Derek, who was no longer driving his Camaro, back to the hotel, Stiles was thanking whatever force had made his luck turn good today, and he was also thinking about how he was definitely going to have to call Scott at the earliest time possible. Even though he knew that all Scott was going to do was gloat about Derek remembering who Stiles was. 

...

When Stiles and Derek pulled up to the renovated Hale house, Stiles couldn't help but stare. He had never seen the house in person before the accidental fire that had burned it to the ground, but he had seen pictures of it. Still, in his mind, the Hale house now looked even better than it had before. 

The house was just as large as it had been before the fire, two stories high and holding multiple bedrooms and bathrooms. Stiles knew the Hale house before had needed all of the bedrooms, but couldn't help but wonder why Derek had had them put back. He supposed it was so that the house was back to its original glory, whether it was necessary or not. It was painted brown, and sometimes would blend in with the trees surrounding it, which was a feature that Derek liked. There was a lot of land with the big house, full of runs through the forest for full moons or any other time the inhabitants needed some wolfy time, and a lot of front and backyard space since the trees had been cleared away from close proximity to the house. Right now, and Stiles supposed in the past too,  all the yard space was filled with toys. There were small houses dotted across the yard, a pair of motorized Barbie cars, a large sandbox in the shape of a turtle, and a swing set complete with a little house with a wheel, a slide, two swings, and a handle bar. Stiles smirked, knowing that all of these toys belonged to Derek's twin girls. 

“Doting father are we?” He asked the man. 

“Shut up Stiles,” he replied and marched up, and through, the front door, carrying one of Stiles’s bags with him. 

When Stiles followed Derek into the house, he was just as surprised at his view of the inside as he had been on the outside. Just walking through the front door revealed three ways that you could go: one way was into a family room that held a very large, flat screen television, stacks upon stacks of movies (Stiles was delighted to see that many of them were Disney movies), more toys such as dolls and tea sets, and a large, black leather couch that took up the entire back wall, the second way was to go up a staircase that led up to the bedrooms, and the third way led into a kitchen that gleamed new and silver with granite counter tops. Stiles hadn’t even made it out from in front of the door and already he was completely impressed. 

“You didn't let any little detail go to waste did you?” He asked, watching Derek take off his shoes and immediately go up the stairs. Stiles followed after a moment of looking around a little more. 

At the top of the stairs, Stiles saw that the stairs came up at the center of the hallway, and to either side there were multiple doors. In between the doors were decorations, whether they were framed pictures of Derek's children, pictures that the girls had drawn, or just random things Derek must have picked up, depended on which doors you were looking between. 

“This first door here,” Derek said, pointing down the left hallway, and to the doorway closest to the stairs, “is the girls' bedroom, and across from it is their playroom. There are two more bedrooms down this hallway, a bathroom, and a closet. The other side is the same, four bedrooms, a bathroom, and a closet. You can pick whichever room you want.”

Stiles started walking down the right side hallway, deciding he probably didn't want a room on the same side as the twins, and took the one closest to the bathroom, which happened to be the last door on the right hand side. 

Once the two had put Stiles’s bags in the room, they headed back downstairs. 

“You definitely returned this place to what it was didn't you?” Stiles said, continuing to look around and marvel at all of the appliances in the kitchen. 

“I felt like after all the time that I had left it, it deserved to be something a bit bigger than life. And something more than I needed, more than the girls and I need.”

“So it's just you and the girls?”

“Yeah, just the three of us.”

“What happened to their mother?” Stiles asked, knowing he was getting close to sacred ground, but ploughing through anyway. He knew that Derek knew he didn't have to answer if he didn't want to, but just wanted to know if Derek would tell him who the girls' mother was, and maybe explain to him why he had made the choice that he had. Lucky for Derek, right as the older man was opening his mouth, the front door opened and two shouting six year olds came through the door. 

“Daddy, daddy!” They yelled completely in sync. 

The two of them were a dash of pink skirts as they ran into the kitchen, backpacks bouncing against their backs. They both ran into Derek, clutching his legs as he rubbed his hand against their heads. 

While this was happening, Stiles looked at the girls. They both had Derek's hair color, and their long, dark hair was in ponytails that were wrapped with ribbons to match their skirts. One of the little girls had Derek's green eyes, but the other had Kate's brown ones. Other than their eye color though, the two were identical, looking like a perfect mixture between Derek and Kate Argent. 

“Who's that daddy?” The girl with Derek's eyes asked a moment later, after she had gotten a sufficient amount of attention from her father. 

“This is my friend Stiles, he's going to be staying with us for a while,” Derek said, crouching down so he was at eye level with the girls. 

The two nodded and put out their hands for Stiles to shake. The green eyes girl spoke first announcing that her name was Ava and Stiles had a funny name. Stiles laughed and shook her hand. The brown eyed girl then told him that her name was Bailey and she agreed with her sister, Stiles was a funny name. Stiles laughed again, liking the two girls instantly, and shook Bailey's hand. 

As soon as both girls had had their hands shaken by the stranger with the weird name, the two ran at him in the same fashion they had Derek, and instantly clutched onto his leg. Stiles did the same thing that Derek did to the girls, and thought that this was probably going to be the most fun he had ever had in a job. The two girls were the sweetest he'd ever met, he had an insane crush on their dad that had managed to last this long, and he didn't see how this job could go wrong. The next month was going to be a great one.


	3. Tuesday, December 2

Everything in the room was unfamiliar, making it completely plausible that Stiles wouldn't know where he was when he woke up the next morning. The walls in this room were a deep burgundy color, instead of his white ones. Instead of the plain walls of his bedroom, he was greeted by more framed artwork that he probably would have never picked up for his own bedroom. The furniture, including a tall, deep brown dresser, a full length mirror, and an end table on either side of the bed, were complete opposites of the one bedside table that held a small lamp and a dresser/mirror combination in his room. To top it all off, the bed was adorned in a burgundy comforter that matched the walls, and had olive green pillow cases and sheets. In Stiles's own room the sheets and comforter could match or not match just depending on what he had grabbed the day that he had changed his sheets. All of these things added together equaled confusion for Stiles for the first few moments after he had woken up. It wasn't until he had rubbed and rubbed at his eyes, trying to see if he was just imagining all the differences, that he remembered that he wasn't at home in his own bed, he was lying in one of the guest bedrooms at Derek Hale's house. He wasn't sure if remembering that was more or less disconcerting than just waking up in an unknown bed. 

After another five minutes of mentally warring with himself about if it was really worth it to get out of bed before noon, Stiles stretched out one last time and got out of the very comfortable, foreign bed. He wasn't sure if he was going to see anyone downstairs, he knew the girls had gone to school a few hours ago and assumed that Derek worked, so he figured he would have an easy morning. He wouldn't have to explain anything until he had a story completely ready, and he wouldn't have to worry if he was in the way. What he wasn't expecting was to find Derek sitting at the dining table, reading the newspaper, and drinking coffee.

"Morning Stiles," Derek said without looking away from his newspaper. For some reason, even though he knew Derek had probably been able to hear when exactly Stiles woke up, Stiles was surprised that Derek knew he was there. For some reason, even though he knew that Derek had super hearing and super everything else, Stiles was surprised that Derek didn't have to look away from his paper to know that he was there. 

"Morning Derek," Stiles said a little warily. 

Sitting down across from Derek, Stiles realized that the older man was probably going to ask more questions. It was completely understandable since he hadn't the day before, but Stiles wasn't ready for them. He wasn't ready to tell Derek the same half-truth that he gave everyone about his job, he wasn't ready to come up with some story about what really brought him here in the first place (and Stiles knew that Derek would keep pushing that until he got a true answer), and he wasn't ready to be asked about everyone who had left Beacon Hills with him. He silently, and quickly, prayed that Derek wouldn't ask the questions, but knew he hadn't been fast enough when one of them was the first thing out of Derek's mouth. 

"So how is everyone?" He asked, still not looking up from his paper. 

Stiles wondered if Derek really wanted to know about everyone, or if he was only asking because it was the socially acceptable thing to do. Either way, Stiles knew for sure that he still had to answer the question. "Everyone's doing great," Stiles said, knowing that his answer was vague and that Derek was probably going to push for more. 

"Is everyone still in college or do you guys have jobs already?"

"We have jobs."

"Doing what?"

Stiles mentally gulped, wishing that this question didn't need to be asked. "We work for a toy company."

Derek finally looked up from his paper to stare at Stiles. The older man had both eyebrows scrunched up into a confused expression, and Stiles knew pretty much exactly why Derek was so confused. "You guys were so smart, why are you working in a toy factory?"

"None of us actually do the toy making; we're pretty high on the chain of command."

"Then what do you do?"

"Advise the boss."

"Then you guys are all doing pretty well. Who all works at this toy company?"

"All of us."

"All of you?" Derek repeated, confused look on his face once again. 

"Yeah like me, Scott, Lydia, Allison, Jackson, Danny, and Kira. All of us."

Derek's expression morphed into one of surprise. "Okay, do you all have the same job?"

"Yeah, it's a pretty busy job. Right now is actually the busiest part of the year," Stiles said, mentally smacking himself the moment the final sentence rushed out of his mouth.

"And you're visiting Beacon Hills?" Derek said, a mix of surprise and confusion written across his face. 

"Yep," Stiles said, trying to sound confident and keep his heartbeat in control. Instead of letting Derek keep on with his line of questioning though, Stiles didn't let a second pass after his one word answer before changing the subject. "Don't you have work?" He asked, thinking that it was a close enough subject to the one that they were on that Derek wouldn't notice the change. 

One look at Derek's unamused face told Stiles that the older man had definitely noticed the change. Stiles was just thankful that at some point he had become nice enough not to mention it or change the subject back. Instead, he just answered the question and kept the conversation going. "Yes I do work."

"Are you going to give me anything else? Like what do you do, or maybe why you aren't there?"

Derek looked back down at his newspaper and Stiles flailed his arms. He had forgotten how utterly annoying Derek could be. 

"I own a construction company," Derek said about a minute later, and just as Stiles had come to terms with the fact that he wasn't going to get an answer. "I'm not at work right now because I take December off and just leave it as I can be called in if I'm really needed."

"And your employees have no problem with this?" 

Derek shrugged. "They usually get December off too. Not a lot of people want construction work done around the holidays."

"And if they do?"

"There are workers that take the job and call people in if they're needed. I'm only called in if they really need me." Derek stared up at Stiles, waiting for an answer, another question, or an explanation toward all of his questions. When he did not get any of the three, he looked back down at his paper, but kept talking. "I take the month off so I can do a lot with the girls."

The first thought in Stiles's mind after what Derek said was the Derek that I knew wouldn't have done that. He immediately felt guilty for it especially since the Derek he had known didn't have kids in the first place. "What happened with their mom?" Stiles asked a moment later, instantly regretting asking the question. 

Derek's head had snapped up from his paper to look Stiles directly in the eye. He knew that Stiles couldn't know who the girls' mother was, and there was no way this questioning was anything more than Stiles just being curious, but part of Derek screamed that he couldn't tell Stiles. This little secret was something that he had to keep to himself, at least for now. Derek didn't want Stiles, and inevitably all of his friends, to know who he had married and had children with. At this point, Derek felt like he needed to take this secret with him to the grave. It wasn't that he didn't trust Stiles with the knowledge, it was more that he didn't want to have to say anything about it out loud. He didn't want to have to look Stiles in the eye and tell him what he had done, and he didn't want Stiles to ask him _why_. If he kept it to himself, he didn't have to explain anything. And that was why, at least for the time being, Derek was going to give Stiles as little information as possible on the topic, and hope that the younger man took it. "After we had the girls she decided she wasn't ready to be a mother so she left," Derek said at last, feeling that the amount of truth in that statement should be enough to keep Stiles's questioning to a minimum. 

Stiles nodded, but didn't say anything. He silently wondered if what Derek had just said was the truth, or if he had made it up to keep from having to talk about who the girls' mother was. He figured that it had to be truthful, even though it left out some vital information, because knowing who the mother was made the statement make total sense. Stiles decided, instead of persisting with more questions, that he would just leave the topic there for now and see if maybe before he left he could get more information about what happened. 

"Do you want some breakfast?" Derek asked after a few minutes, and after he was sure that Stiles wasn't going to decide to say anything more. 

"Sure," Stiles replied, nodding. "What do you have?"

"Well, you can have some cereal or I can make something."

Stiles definitely wasn't going to give up the chance to watch Derek cook breakfast, so his answer was a definite, and enthusiastic, yes.

"Okay," Derek said with a laugh at Stiles's vigorous nodding. "What do you want?"

"What do you want? I don't want to make you make more than one meal."

Derek rolled his eyes. "You're just like the girls. Whatever you want, I'll probably just end up eating too."

"But what if you don't want what I want?"

"Then I'll make what I want too. It's not that hard Stiles."

"Then I want two eggs, over medium, with buttered toast," Stiles decided, mainly trying to see if Derek would object and say that if he wanted that, he could go find a restaurant to make it for him. 

Instead of the annoyance that Stiles had been hoping to cause, Derek just nodded and started getting out supplies. After a moment, and watching Derek get four eggs out of the refrigerator, Stiles realized that Derek was having the same thing he was. 

"Do you actually want that?" Stiles asked, sitting down at the counter to watch Derek make their food. 

Derek shrugged. "I haven't had eggs in a while, it'll shake things up a little bit."

With one little sentence, Stiles couldn't believe what he was doing. If someone had told him that a few years into the future he would be watching Derek Hale make eggs and hear him say something like "it'll shake things up a bit", he probably would have laughed and then told them it wasn't funny to say things like that. He couldn't help but have a million thoughts that all started with "the Derek I knew wouldn't have" because the Derek he knew was so different than the one that had told him he was going to be staying with him and his two daughters. He knew an emotionally constipated man that had such deep wounds and trust issues that he had gotten from people he had let get close to him. The Derek Hale that Stiles and all of his friends had known during their high school years was gone, and in his place was a confident man with two kids. Stiles was glad that something good had finally happened to Derek. 

After Derek finished the eggs, which were excellent, and the two had finished breakfast, Stiles forced Derek to let him do the dishes. He insisted that because Derek had cooked, the least Stiles could do was make sure that he didn't also have to clean everything up. The two bickered on about doing the dishes, Derek saying that Stiles was a guest and should not be doing dishes, and Stiles saying that Derek was being stupid and he wanted to do them. In the end, the two decided to do them together; Stiles washing and Derek drying. 

"So if you take the entire month of December off to do things with the girls, what are the things you do? You have a whole month, that seems like a lot more time than you need," Stiles said, sitting down on one of the couches in Derek's living room, a few moments after the two had finished cleaning the kitchen up. 

"There's a lot more to do than you think. There are things I do with them, Christmas themed things that have become traditions over the years, and other things that I need time to do on my own," Derek replied, sitting in an armchair that was next to the couch Stiles was sitting on. 

Stiles knew what things Derek meant when he said "things that I need time to do on my own". It was Christmas time, and that led to only one explanation; getting gifts for the girls. Every year Stiles had been working in the North Pole he had had to deal with parents that bought all of the gifts for their children: or thought that they did anyway. He had never explained what really went on, because he was always gone before the kids got their gifts, and the process was designed to make the parents think they had gotten everything anyway. Every year though, Stiles was shocked that no parent actually believed that Santa Claus existed, and therefore didn't think that his real job existed. It wasn't like he expected everyone to believe like he did, because he sure as hell hadn't when he had first received the invitation to do this job, but he was still surprised. Sometimes, especially in the moments when he was shown that someone didn't believe and was reminded that most of the world’s population didn't, he felt sad. Everyone in the whole world was ignorant to one of the most amazing things Stiles had experienced in his life, and they would never know it. 

"That didn't answer my question," Stiles remarked. 

Derek rolled his eyes. "There's a lot of stuff I do with the girls, do you want me to list it out for you?"

"That would be appreciated, yes."

Derek rolled his eyes again. "Fine, I take them to a ski resort and our cabin in North Dakota, I spend a day watching Christmas movies with them, I take them dress shopping, I take them to get small gifts for each other, I take them to cut down a tree and we decorate it, we decorate the house, I take them ice skating, and I get pictures of them with a mall Santa.”

"Is that all?"

"I don't know, maybe. I told you, I do a lot with them."

"I definitely believe you. Maybe you do need the whole month off," Stiles said, sounding impressed. Before Derek could take in Stiles's awe though, Stiles turned to the older man with a grin on his face. "But I still believe it's only a maybe. You could probably work some throughout December."

Derek just glared at Stiles, which only caused Stiles to laugh. The rest of the day, until the girls got home, the two of them sat in the same spots, swapping stories about what had happened since Stiles and his gang had left Beacon Hills, and also watching reality television. Stiles couldn't help but think that it had turned out to be a pretty good first day on the job. 

...

As soon as the girls got home the two were running through the door, the same way they had the day before. Derek had had just enough time to stand from where he had been sitting before the two six year olds were latching onto his legs and greeting him. Then, much to Stiles's surprise, the girls rushed over to where he was standing and latching onto his legs. The two looked up at him, brown and green eyes staring up at his face, and saying "Hello daddy's friend with the funny name," practically in unison. 

"Hello Ava and Bailey," Stiles replied, smiling at the girls. 

When the two released Stiles's legs Derek immediately swooped in to save Stiles from any questions the young girls could throw at him. 

"What do you guys want for dinner?" He asked, looking at the two girls with such fondness, and such love. Stiles didn't really consider himself to be the type that would want to melt from seeing that, but he felt a little melted just seeing how much Derek obviously cared about his daughters. 

The two looked at each other, looking almost like they were having a conversation that no one else could hear, and then looked back at Derek. 

"We want spaghetti," Ava declared. 

Derek raised his eyebrows. "Are you two going to help make it?"

"Of course daddy!" Bailey replied, looking as if she were insulted that Derek thought that they wouldn't. 

"And you're going to help clean up?" 

"Of course!" Bailey exclaimed again. 

"Okay, lets head to the kitchen then, dinners not going to make itself."

The girls ran into the other room, giggling as they went, but Derek stayed back a moment. "What are you going to do while we're making dinner?" He asked Stiles. 

"I don't know," Stiles replied, shrugging. "I could help you guys."

Derek smiled. "You don't have to Stiles, we can cook for you. Besides," Derek said, a glint appearing in his eye. "I'll probably need your help cleaning up, those two might look sweet but they make quite the mess."

Stiles laughed, imagining just how bad of a mess the two could make, especially with the food they were going to eat tonight, and nodded. "I need to call some people anyway," he said, turning around to go up the stairs, "Call me when dinners ready."

Stiles made his way up to his room and grabbed his cell phone. He had been waiting all day to call Scott, and was thankful that he would finally get the chance. If Scott had been left as an adult like he had, it would have been easier to keep contact, but since Scott was a child this year, he was put into a schedule like the one the girls were on. He had to go to school, which he complained about every year, and didn't get home until around three or four o'clock in the afternoon. Calling in the morning was totally out of the question, especially since Stiles didn't usually wake up and get out of bed during the morning, and then during the day was out because of school, and sometimes the earliest time he could call was nine o'clock because Scott had to try and get close to the child he was assigned to, and that usually meant going to their house. This time, since Stiles was so anxious to call Scott and didn't think he could wait until nine or later, he was praying that Scott would be home and ready to talk. 

"Hey Stiles, how goes the hunt for Derek?" Scott asked the moment he picked up the phone, his voice sounding a lot higher pitched due to his age change. 

Stiles laughed at his friend’s voice, like he did every year. "Nice voice Scott," he said instead of answering the question.

"I hate you Stiles. Now answer my question."

"Pushy pushy," Stiles said, scolding his best friend. "Well the eagle has landed, I have infiltrated the building and his life."

"And did he recognize you when he first saw you?"

Stiles sighed instead of giving Scott a straight answer. 

"Ha! I told you so!" He exclaimed. 

"Yeah well good for you," Stiles replied, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, I'm staying with him and his two daughters."

"Well you're a lot further than I am, I haven't even been able to introduce myself to the kid. They haven't been to school because apparently they're sick so I'm here becoming friends with all these other kids that just think I'm the new one."

"You've got it rough buddy," Stiles said. 

"Tell me about it. Anyway, what all have you done since you got back to Beacon Hills?"

Stiles went into a detailed list of everything he had done since coming back to the town. He hadn't done much yet, as he had told Scott, so he made up for that by going into great detail about everything. He told Scott exactly how the coffee shop had changed before telling him exactly what he had decided to do with Derek, and how exactly it had gone wrong. He went through a detailed description of Derek's house before telling Scott about what he and Derek had talked about while the girls were at school, and he did a lot of talking about the girls, even though he didn't know them very well. 

"I don't think this month is going to be very hard for me," Stiles said, half hoping that that statement didn't make him sound like a jackass. He knew Scott's month was going to be difficult, he didn't need to shove it in Scott's face that his wasn't. 

"Yeah well that should be nice. I've got to go though, duty calls," Scott said and a few moments later they were saying goodbye. 

Then, a few minutes after Scott hung up, Derek was calling up to Stiles, telling him that dinner was ready. Stiles was surprised that he hadn't already noticed that fact since he noticed right away that the smell of spaghetti was wafting deliciously through the air. As he got closer to the kitchen, the smell just got stronger and stronger, making Stiles's stomach decide that it was definitely very hungry and it definitely wanted some of whatever smelt so damn delicious. 

When Stiles entered the kitchen to join the three Hales, he noticed that not only was the food ready, everything was ready. The table was set, having silverware, glasses, and paper towel set up at each of the four spots, and different were dishes sitting in the middle of the table, waiting to be dug into. Stiles was impressed at what the three had done, for some reason he had thought that it would be a lot harder to cook a full meal with two little ones helping, but obviously Derek was used to working with his daughters. 

"What do you want to drink Stiles?" Derek asked from the stove, where he was putting mounds of spaghetti and meatballs on four plates. 

"Uh milk?" Stiles said, unsure of his options. 

Derek nodded and immediately one of the girls hopped up from her seat at the table and got the milk out of the refrigerator. "Thank you Bailey," Derek said as the young girl sat back down in her seat. 

After Derek had put the spaghetti and meatballs on the plates and taken them to the table, the four of them were sitting and eating. For the first few minutes, as Derek helped the girls get the other things they wanted, and everyone started eating, it was quiet. The only sounds in the room was the ones of everyone eating, and forks scratching on plates. Derek was the first to start talking a moment later. 

"How was school girls?" He asked his daughters, watching them as they ate their spaghetti and got marinara sauce all around their mouths and on the table. 

"Good!" Both of the girls said around mouthfuls of spaghetti. 

"Anything new happen?" Derek asked. 

"We're doing a Christmas concert!" Ava said, causing her and her sister to start bouncing in excitement. 

"We're singing Christmas songs and all the parents get to come see!" Bailey added, then she looked over at Stiles. "And Stiles can come too!"

Stiles laughed. "Thanks for the invite Bailey."

"You're welcome!"

"So did anything else happen?" Derek asked. 

After thinking for a moment, the girls launched into stories about what happened during their day at school. They talked about playing outside during recess, learning new things, and eating lunch with the rest of their class. The two of them told Derek stories about friends they had at school, and what they did with their friends. As far as Stiles could tell, the girls were pretty popular with the rest of their class.

Before long, everyone's plate was cleared and no one was reaching, or asking, for more. The girls ran off to their room and Derek and Stiles got to work cleaning up. Stiles took all of the dishes off of the table, rinsed them off, and then put them in the dishwasher, while Derek took the pots and pans that still had food in them, put lids on them, and stored them away in the refrigerator. They worked on washing off the table, mainly the girls' places where there was spaghetti sauce on the table, and finally vacuumed the kitchen. When they were done, they headed out to the living room and took back up their seats from earlier.

For the first few minutes, neither of them said anything. The two just sat in comfortable silence, reveling in the fact that they got a few moments to rest. Since Stiles didn't yet have children of his own, he had had no idea what taking care of them was like. He knew that what had happened from the moment the girls got home to now was just a teeny tiny glimpse, but he already knew it was hard work. Before he said anything to Derek, he told himself to remember to tell his dad thank you. He knew he had to have been a pain in the ass to raise. 

"So what else is on the agenda for tonight?" Stiles asked the moment after his decision to thank his dad. 

"Uh, I take a little bit of time to rest while the girls do their thing, then they get a bath, and then they go to bed," Derek replied, giving the rest of the evening a clean, definitive ending. 

Stiles nodded and Derek turned the television back on, settling on a show that Stiles had never heard of before. For the next hour, the two sat watching the same television show. Stiles found that it was very easy to get in to, the characters were funny, the idea was original, and the show overall wasn't boring. In fact, Stiles found that he enjoyed the show very much, and was sucked into it completely. He was so sucked into the show that an hour after starting it, Stiles didn't notice when Derek walked out of the room to go help the girls take a bath. Then, when Derek walked back into the living room, Stiles's first thought was when did he leave. 

"When did you leave?" He asked, deciding not to leave his curiosity unquenched. 

"Half an hour ago," Derek said, keeping his voice level, but having a bit of a mocking tone to it. Stiles decided that he didn't like the tone one bit, even though he actually did. 

"How did the bath go?" He asked, deciding to leave Derek's mocking alone. Maybe if he didn't engage him, the alpha wouldn't get any kind of thrill. 

Derek smirked, which just proved that Stiles's do not engage theory had been wrong. "It went fine, just like it does every other night. They're getting ready for bed right now, but they said that they want you to help me read a story to them."

"Oh," Stiles said, voicing his surprise. "Okay, I can come read to them with you," he said, and for some reason felt genuinely excited about going to read a story to Derek's daughters and have Derek reading with him. Maybe he was delusional, maybe he liked the domesticity the action brought with it. Either way, he decided for the moment that the subject was better left alone. "What are we reading?"

"The Polar Express. I do this thing with the girls where starting on the first day of December, we start reading Christmas books. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all," Stiles said, thinking once again a thought that started with "the Derek I knew". Truth be told, the Derek he knew wouldn't have cared if he minded or not. Stiles had a theory that this Derek didn't care either, but for an entirely different reason. Stiles didn't mind what kind of book he was reading, the fact that he was going to get to watch Derek read to his daughters was enough to make his heart come close to bursting. 

The two made their way up the stairs and into the girls' bedroom. When they got there, both Ava and Bailey were changed into their pajamas and laying in their beds, blankets pulled up to their chins, just waiting for Derek and Stiles to come read to them. 

"Are you guys ready for your story?" Derek asked, his voice getting a sweet tone that he always got when he was talking to the girls. 

"Yeah!" The two squealed, smiling at their dad. 

"Alright then we better get started," Derek said. 

Derek walked over to the small bookshelf that the girls had in their bedroom and quickly found the book he was looking for. After grabbing the book he sat down on the edge of Ava's bed and motioned for Stiles to do the same at the end of Bailey's bed. With the two looking ready for the story, Derek started reading the first page, holding the attention of all three people in the room. 

_On Christmas Eve, many years ago, I lie quietly on my bed. I did not rustle the sheets, I breathed slowly and silently..._


	4. Wednesday, December 3

To say the least, Stiles was a little confused, and surprised, when the first thing he saw when he woke up was Derek standing in the doorway of his room. If there was anything that he was expecting to wake up to, it wasn't Derek leaning against the doorframe of the door that Stiles had _definitely_ closed the night before, and watching as he slept. If nothing else before had reminded Stiles of the Derek he had known years ago, this sure as hell had. 

“What are you doing?” Stiles asked, pushing himself up on his elbows. 

Derek walked further into the room, taking Stiles's question as an invitation to come in. “What are your plans for the day?” Derek asked, not giving an answer to what Stiles asked, but going ahead and sitting down at the end of the bed. He thought what he had been doing was pretty obvious. 

“Uh, nothing?” Stiles said, sounding more like he was asking Derek a question than giving him an answer. 

“Good.”

“Why?” Stiles asked, wondering what Derek thought he would have planned for the day in the first place. 

“We're going out,” Derek said, standing back up from where he was sitting and heading back out the door. Before Stiles could ask where exactly the two of them were going Derek was down the hallway, heading toward the stairs, and yelling “So take a shower and change, I'm not going anywhere with you if you stink and you're wearing pajamas.”

The only thing that could get processed enough to get out of Stiles's mouth was a muttered “What an asshole” that he knew for sure that Derek had heard. Whatever Derek had planned for their day was a totally mystery for Stiles, and was obviously going to remain that way until they left the house. 

As Stiles took the recommended shower and changed into clothing he could leave the house in, he wondered why Derek had decided they needed to get out of the house, and why he couldn't have waited long enough for Stiles to wake up and go downstairs. It was pretty obvious just by Derek watching him while he slept that the werewolf hadn’t gotten rid of any of his creeper talents since Stiles and his friends had left Beacon Hills. And actually, he had probably gotten even better since having the girls, although with them it would be considered protective parenting. Stiles had no doubt that Derek was the kind of parent to be extremely protective, and got a laugh at the thought of how Derek would act when the girls got to the age where they started dating and going to parties that would involve interacting with boys. 

 _Man,_ Stiles thought with a laugh, _It'll be great to see that._

Then, with one leg in a pair of pants, and one hovering above said pants, he realized what he had just thought. Instead of thinking it _would_ be great to see that, Stiles had switched out the would for a will, implicating that he would be around to see how Derek reacted when the girls started taking more of an interest in boys.

 _Woah there Stilinski,_ Stiles thought, wide eyed and still not fully dressed, _You and Derek are just friends, friends who easily drifted apart when you left for college. You hadn't tried to contact him, he hadn’t tried to contact you. Any feelings you had for him, yeah they're still here, but they're going to go unnoticed and unreciprocated just like the last time. Even though you lo-_ Stiles stopped again, this time falling over because of the implications of his thoughts. He knew exactly where his brain was going with that, but was not going to let it happen. Just because he had no filter with his mouth or his thoughts it did not mean that his brain needed to make things up. No way did he love Derek Hale, end of discussion. 

Instead of letting his thoughts go any further, Stiles stood back up, this time mentally singing a song with as much gusto as possible, and made his way downstairs. He was just going to ignore his thoughts and go wherever Derek planned on taking him. He didn't need to think of his feelings, just his job, and that was that. 

Or so he told himself. 

...

The minute that Stiles got downstairs and started heading into the kitchen, Derek arrived to cut him off. All of a sudden, instead of walking into the kitchen and bombarding Derek with questions pertaining to what he was doing earlier, what his plans are today, and what he thought Stiles was going to do, Derek was shoving something warm into Stiles's hand and guiding him out the door. 

“What the hell dude,” Stiles said, looking down at what Derek had given him and saw that it was a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich.

“First of all, don't call me dude, second of all, we are on a tight schedule since we have to get back home before the girls get home.”

Stiles let himself be pushed to Derek's car, but only because he was caught on the fact that Derek had said “we have to be home”. For some reason, the way the older man phrased his words made Stiles's stomach bounce and all of his resistance to flee his body. Some small part of his brain decided he could wait until he was seated in the car, and had fully gone over every implication Derek could have put into his once sentence, to ask any questions. 

The moment Stiles was seated in Derek's car and had his seatbelt on, his mind started coming up with questions. Naturally, instead of festering in Stiles's head until an opportune moment to start asking, the first question slipped right past Stiles's lips and hung in the air waiting for Derek to answer it. Of course it was the most awkward question Stiles needed an answer to. 

“Why were you watching me sleep?” Stiles asked, wishing he could snatch the words right back up the moment they were out in the open. 

Derek seemed to not want to respond but years ago, Stiles had gotten good at reading Derek, so the slight tensing of his muscles as he backed out of his driveway was not missed by the younger man. “I hadn't been watching you sleep,” Derek replied after they were driving down the road.  

Because of the way Derek's muscles had tightened, as if he were getting ready for a fight, Stiles knew the werewolf wasn't exactly telling the truth. So Stiles wasn't going to leave it that way. “Sure you weren't, you just happened to be lounging against the doorframe as I just coincidentally happened to be sleeping. Is that how it went?”

Derek shrugged. “However you want to think it happened.”

Stiles tightened his jaw. “That's exactly how it happened so just admit it. What I don't understand is why you were doing it.”

Derek shrugged again. Unfortunately Stiles knew that that was all the response Derek was going to give him. The werewolf might have half ass admitted to watching him sleep, but there was no way in hell he was going to tell Stiles why he had been doing it. That would be a topic addressed on another day. 

“Why did you ask me if I had any plans for today?” Stiles asked, approaching his next question. 

Derek visibly relaxed, obviously content with this change in subject. The man definitely looked more open than he had only a second ago, which again made Stiles wonder why Derek had been watching him sleep. “You said you wanted to visit the town, so I'm taking you on your visit.”

“Wow Derek, you didn't have to do that. I just figured I'd find a day where you weren't doing anything and I would just take a drive around, maybe go into some places.”

“Well I didn't have anything to do today, so I figured we could go. Just tell me where you want to stop, and where you want to drive by, and I'll get you there.”

Stiles just stared at Derek, unable to believe how considerate he was being by doing this. The reason Stiles had given Derek for being back in town was total bullshit and Stiles knew that Derek pretty much knew that. For Derek to be taking him around anyway, well that was big. Stiles had just planned on going for “a drive to visit the town” by himself during his visit. Never in a million years had he thought that this would be how he would go sightseeing around Beacon Hills. Actually, never in a million years had Stiles thought he would go sightseeing around Beacon Hills. 

After finally taking a bite of the sandwich in his hand, which was thankfully still warm, Stiles looked at Derek, his first destination already decided.  “To the library then my fine steed.”

“Fine steed?” Derek said, looking over at Stiles with an eyebrow raised. 

“Yes,” Stiles said, trying not to blush. He honestly hadn't been thinking of his word choice. “To the library.”

“Alright then, to the library it is,” Derek said, and then paused. “Why the library?”

“I need a book to read.”

“I'll tell you now that the library hasn't changed much. Except for the librarians, it's pretty much still the same place.”

“How many of the librarians are new?”

“All of them.”

Stiles gasped. “That means that Sue's gone!”

Derek looked over at Stiles with an expression on his face that clearly said that he worried about Stiles's mental wellbeing. “Yeah, she hasn't been there for a while.”

Stiles, who looked extremely bummed out, finished his sandwich as they got to the library. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket, twisting around so he could reach his pocket while keeping his seatbelt on. “I hope I still have my library card,” he said, looking through all the cards he had. A moment later he pulled it out, making a victorious noise. 

“You found it just in time,” Derek said, shutting the car off. “We have arrived at your first destination.”

“Now you sound like a GPS,” Stiles said, getting out of the car himself, and joining Derek on the sidewalk in front of the small, brick building. 

Derek glared at him. “Let’s just go in so you can get your book and we can move on.”

“Hey, you're the one that decided you wanted to join me on my quest around town.”

“And I am now regretting my decision, try not to make me regret it even more.”

“I can't make any promises.”

“Of course you can't.”

As the two of them bickered, they entered the library. Stiles took the first moment he was through the door to look around the place and play Spot the Difference. The place had looked the exact same on the outside, with, he was guessing, some new paint on the wooden steps leading up to the door, and he was pleased that, for the most part, it looked the same on the inside too. There was still the kid’s area with the animal rug and the small computer all wrapped inside shelves of books. There was still the desk with the staff computers and the shelf of books and other things that were waiting for people to pick up. There were still the four computers that library card holders could use. And of course there was still the second “level”, that could be seen from the first because of a large open area in the wall between the two, that held shelf upon shelf filled with different types of books. Other than small differences that Stiles was sure was there, the only thing that had changed was the staff. And even that wouldn't have been so obvious if the two people standing behind the desk weren't unfamiliar faces. 

Stiles walked past the desk to a small staircase, so small that there were only three steps, and went down to the second level of the library. Even though he hadn't been there in years, he was able to quickly find the type of book he had wanted, purely from remembering where he used to get them from. He scoured over the titles and the authors, not really looking for a specific one just one that sounded good, and grabbed a book off the shelf after about five minutes of looking through titles. After reading the description, Stiles decided that that book would do and promptly walked back to the desk with Derek trailing after him. 

“I'd like to check this out please,” Stiles said, smiling at the lady working behind the desk. 

With a smile in return, the woman asked Stiles for his library card, which he gave her, and then she scanned his card and the book he wanted to check out. After the book was checked out on the computer, the woman printed out Stiles's receipt, telling him it was due in three weeks on the twenty fourth of December, and putting the receipt in a random spot in the book. She then gave him a big smile, and told him to have a nice day. 

After telling her to also have a nice day, Stiles led Derek back outside. 

“What book did you check out?” Derek asked as the two of them got back into the car. 

“And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It's a mystery novel.”

Derek raised his eyebrows. “After everything that you did during high school, you still get a thrill from mysteries?”

“I guess so, I never really thought about that.”

“Alright well, as long as you like them. Where to now?”

Stiles smirked, knowing exactly where he wanted to go. “The vet clinic,” he said, hoping to get a sigh or an eye roll or at least a “why the vet clinic” from Derek. 

“Alright then,” Derek said, not giving Stiles any of the reactions he wanted. “To the vet clinic it is”

...

Just like with the library, the vet clinic had changed very little since the last time Stiles had gone in it. It still looked the exact same on the outside, as if no time had passed what so ever, and when Stiles walked through the front doors he found it looked the same on the inside too. Walking in and seeing little change made Stiles realize that he hadn't really wanted to visit the town to see how much it had changed, but to see how much the people had changed. He had wanted to go to the vet clinic because Deaton was the last person in town, other than Derek, that he knew was still here and he wanted to see how much the man had changed since Stiles was in high school. He didn't really care about the look of the vet clinic, just like he hadn't really cared about the look of the library, he cared about the people inside. He had been bummed to learn that none of his favorite librarians were still working, but he knew that he could count on Deaton still being employed. 

“Hello,” a familiar voice said as Derek and Stiles walked toward the front desk of the clinic. “What can I help you with?”

Stiles realized that Deaton must not have been looking anywhere near the door if he had to ask what he could help them with. 

“Hey Deaton,” Stiles said, causing the older man to whip around toward the two. 

“Derek, Stiles, what a pleasure to see you. I didn't realize you were back in town Stiles,” he said with a small smile. 

Stiles returned the smile. “Just visiting for a few weeks.”

“This close to Christmas? Don’t your father and your friends want you around?”

Stiles shrugged, wondering why that was everyone's first question. 

“Well if you're here you probably want something, so what can I help you with?”

Stiles shook his head. “I just came for a visit since I haven't been around in a long time, but this guy could probably use a checkup,” Stiles said with a grin, looking back at Derek just in time to see the glare he received for his comment. 

“I'm sure he could. How are the girls Derek?”

“They're good,” Derek replied, pleasantly enough. 

Deaton nodded and Stiles realized that Deaton had probably been giving the girls checkups since they had been born. Until now, after Deaton asked Derek about his daughters, Stiles hadn't even thought about the fact that the girls could be werewolves. Honestly, he figured that said enough about him being too used to the idea of the furry creatures. 

“Wait,” he said, even though the conversation had stopped as he had mulled over his realization. “The girls are werewolves?”

“Yeah,” Derek said, with a tone and expression that clearly put the unspoken ‘duh’ on the end of his sentence. 

“And Deaton's been helping with them since they were born?”

“Yeah, they can't exactly be taken to a normal hospital when they've got fangs, glowing eyes, and claws. Or at least not since Melissa left.”

“Huh, okay,” Stiles said, wondering why the hell he hadn’t thought of that sooner. 

“Are they going to be ready for the full moon?” Deaton asked a second later. 

“They're getting better with control but they are completely in control yet. They still get the look, but they should be okay to not have to be chained up.”

“You chain them up?” Stiles said, shocked at the idea of seeing the two six year olds in the chains he used to put on his friends. 

“Not the way you're thinking Stiles, it's different for young werewolves. You can't just put giant chains around their arms and expect them to be okay. When they were babies I held them through it even though it was hell to listen to them cry all night, now, since they've been doing this since birth, I've had enough time to teach them some ways to stay in control. Like I said, they don't tear anything up and they don't go on rampages, they just shift a little and then they're fine.”

“Alright,” Stiles said, figuring he was going to have to trust Derek on that one. “Well Deaton it was nice seeing you, we'll keep in touch.”

Deaton followed the two to the door, escorting them out. “It was nice seeing you too Stiles, have a nice day.”

And with that, the two were back in the car. 

“Alright where to now?” Derek asked Stiles as they were driving away from the vet clinic. 

“There isn't anywhere special left, let’s just drive around past some places and then get lunch, I'm starving.”

“What that sandwich wasn't enough for you?” Derek asked, obviously teasing Stiles. 

“Hey it's been a few hours so don't go there with me.”

“And what, are you still a growing boy too?”

“Yes I am,” Stiles said, sticking his head up defiantly. 

“Okay, whatever you say Stiles.”

Stiles glared at Derek but turned his attention to the places they were passing when Derek didn't look over to see what he was doing. 

...

For the next half hour, Stiles and Derek drove through Beacon Hills, going past places that Stiles remembered from when he lived there. There was no real order to how they traveled, Derek just chose a direction to go in, and that was the direction they took. 

The only places that Stiles wanted to specifically see were his friends’ houses. They started with Scott's, where there were two children running around the yard when they drove past. Next they went past Lydia's house, where nothing had changed. Then they went past Isaac's and Jackson's houses, noting that there seemed to be new families in each, and a relatively rich one in Jackson's. Then the two went past Danny's, and Kira's, and Allison's, and even Stiles's. Most of the houses looked the same as they had when Stiles had been living there, just some minor details such as decoration or shrubbery were different. Stiles was glad that even though each house had someone new living in it, none of the houses had been changed too much from what he remembered. The fact that they looked so much like his memories ended up being a relief he didn't know about. 

“So whatever happened to your loft?” Stiles asked Derek. Stiles noticed how he thought _home_ and not _Derek's house_ but decided not to dwell on it for the moment, even though he knew he had no right to start changing how he thought of the place. 

“I sold it?” Derek said, sounding confused by the line of questioning. 

“How long did you live in it after everyone left?”

“For a little while. Through the beginning of my relationship with the girls' mom I lived there. Once we started talking about getting married and having children, I decided I wanted my kids to grow up where I grew up so I renovated the old house.”

Stiles noticed that when Derek talked of his relationship with the girls' mother, he seemed to tense up and got a sour look on his face. Although the look made Stiles want to laugh, he knew it was inappropriate. Whatever had happened it must have made Derek really hate the woman, and since Stiles knew who the woman was, he couldn't say that he blamed the man. What he didn't understand was how Derek could have found himself in a relationship, especially a relationship that strong, with _her_ of all people. 

“The renovations look great, by the way,” Stiles said after thinking about the conversation they were having and not knowing where to take it. 

“Thanks,” Derek said, not sounding like he knew where to take the conversation either. 

The two fell into silence as Derek drove the two of them back into the heart of town so that they could find somewhere to eat. They quickly passed all of the fast food places, which surprised Stiles since that was what he had figured they would eat, and found a small diner instead. Stiles definitely wasn't going to complain, diner food was _so_ much better than fast food, but he definitely wondered why they were going there instead. Of course he couldn't let his silent question go unanswered. 

“So why did you pass all of the fast food places?” He asked after Derek had parked the car and the two were walking toward the front door of the building. 

“I didn't want fast food,” was Derek's short reply. 

“Okay, this works for me.”

“Good,” Derek said, holding the door open for Stiles to go through ahead of him, “Because you weren't getting much choice in the matter.”

Stiles glared back at Derek but didn't say anything. He would just somehow have to deal with sitting with the grump through a good meal, and find something to complain about. 

...

By the time the girls rushed through the door later that night, Derek and Stiles were waiting by the front door for them. Derek had already started getting everything out for dinner, grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, and had just been waiting for the girls to get home since they liked helping him cook so much. The moment the two flew through the door with their matching cries of “Daddy!” they were attached to Derek's legs and telling him little bits of stories about their day. The two then proceeded to do the same to Stiles before Derek managed to get them into the kitchen. This time, instead of going up to his room to wait to be called down, Stiles took a seat at the counter and watched the three work. 

“Daddy, daddy, daddy,” Ava cried, trying to get her dad’s attention as he was trying to get the chicken out of its container. 

“Yes baby,” Derek replied after getting the four needed pieces out. 

“Can you do our hair for us tomorrow?” The little girl asked, looking over at her father with wide, innocent eyes and a sweet smile. 

Derek scrunched his face up. “What do you mean Ava? I do your hair every morning.”

“But we want _pretty_ hair,” Bailey chimed in to help her sister.

“You do have pretty hair baby,” Derek told his two girls. “What's bringing this on?”

“Natalie had pretty hair today daddy and we want pretty hair like hers!” Ava said. 

“What did Natalie's hair look like today?” Derek said, turning around from where he had put the pieces of chicken on a plate. He knew that this conversation was going to need his full attention, he was going to need to know what he was agreeing to before he got himself into a sticky situation.

“She said it was a French braid,” Ava said, and Derek's face contorted into that of a deer in the headlights. 

As Stiles watched Derek he could see the man trying to think of a way to gently tell his daughters there was no way he would be able to do that. He knew what Derek was feeling, thinking of doing a French braid was terrifying when first met with the idea, but thankfully Stiles had learned how to do one. 

“I could do your hair for you girls,” Stiles said, watching as the girls looked up at him in pure excitement. 

“You don't have to-” Derek started, but that was all before Stiles interrupted him. 

“Don't worry Derek I already know how to French braid.”

Derek looked at Stiles with the obvious question of “How?” written all over his face, but Stiles figured he could wait to give the older man an explanation. 

“Can you do other stuff?” Bailey asked quietly. 

“Not right now but I could learn if you want me to.”

The smiles that had been adorning the girls' faces strengthened tenfold as they danced around the kitchen in excitement. 

“After dinner we can look for stuff you want me to do okay?” He asked, smiling unconsciously as he watched the girls.

“Okay,” they singsonged, repeating the word over and over until it was a song in of itself.

After a few more minutes of Ava and Bailey dancing around the room, Derek told them that they wouldn't be getting anything to eat if they didn't help out. Stiles would have believed this threat if Derek hadn't been looking down at his daughters with a look of pure adoration, but because he had Stiles's heart melted a little instead. Even though he knew what he had just agreed to was going to be difficult, he was kind of glad that he had. He found that the two little girls were definitely growing on him. Honestly, he wouldn't be surprised if they had him wrapped around their fingers before he left for home.

..

The next day Stiles went out, bought a stylist head, and spent the day learning and perfecting as many hairstyles as he could so Ava and Bailey could go to school wearing whatever hair style their little hearts desired.


	5. Friday, December 5

The alarm Stiles set on his phone blared through the room at six o'clock the next morning. Stiles felt tired and just wanted to stay in bed and curl into the blankets. The only thing keeping him from doing what he wanted was the fact that he had made two little girls a promise and there was no way he was letting them down. 

The day before he had woken up at the same time and met the girls downstairs just in time to French braid their hair before they were off to school. Derek had given him a look, clearly asking how Stiles knew how to do that, and Stiles had waited until the girls were gone to give the werewolf an answer. 

“I had some time off at one point a few years ago,” Stiles had told Derek, thinking about the time when somehow he hadn’t ended up with an assignment, and therefore nothing to do during the entire month of December. “So I went and stayed with my cousin who had a little girl who was about ten and a little boy who was about eight. My cousin had always done her daughters hair, but around the same time as I stayed with her for a month, her husband got laid off and she had to take more shifts to keep them all afloat. He had no idea how to do any kinds of hairstyles, so when my cousin had a day off, and he was of trying to find a job, I had her teach me how to French braid since that's what her daughter wanted most of the time. While I was there, I did her hair in the morning, and then taught her husband how to do it so he knew how once I left.”

Derek had looked at Stiles, looking like he was impressed. And throughout the day, as Stiles learned hairstyle after hairstyle, the look stayed on Derek's face. 

Today, Stiles would be doing something different with the girls' hair, something that he had figured out how to do after learning some of the other hairstyles. So, instead of staying in bed like he had the first few days of staying with the Hales, Stiles got up out of his warm bed, not bothering to change into anything different, and went downstairs. 

The girls were ready for him, already dressed and prepared for school, and were sitting on two stools that Derek had pulled out for them. 

“Stiles!” The two of them yelled from their seats, startling Derek who had had his back turned. 

Stiles smiled at the two. “Ready?”

The two nodded, so Stiles got to work. The day before he had kept it simple and had done a French braid for both of them, today he was going to take his French braiding skill and add a little to it so it wasn't the same thing the two had already worn. Down the sides, right over their ears, Stiles added in smaller French braids that cascaded down until merging and becoming one braid that would lay down the twins' backs. When Stiles was done with Bailey's he gave her a mirror so she could see what her hair looked like. Along with her shyly telling Stiles that it looked nice, Ava bounced next to her, having gotten off of her seat when Stiles finished her sister’s braid, and was telling Stiles that she loved it, and asking if he could he do the same for her now. Instead of making her wait, Stiles got Ava back onto her stool, and did her braid too. 

Practically the moment Stiles was done with Ava's hair; Derek was telling the girls they needed to grab their bags and lunches because the bus was almost to the house. With shouted thank you's, the two of them ran out the door. 

“Why do they still ride the bus if you don't work through the whole month?” Stiles asked Derek after the girls had gone. 

Derek shrugged. “They like riding the bus, I told them I would take them to school this month, but they said they wanted to ride the bus with their friends.”

“And there's no way you would make them do something that they didn't want,” Stiles said, smirking at Derek, hoping the older man would get his point. 

When all Derek did was glare in response, Stiles knew that his point had definitely made it across. 

“So what's the plan for today?” Stiles asked, taking a seat at the counter. 

“Going shopping for the girls' gifts,” Derek replied, walking around the kitchen, getting out everything he needed to make the two of them breakfast. 

Instead of replying, Stiles just watched as Derek made the two of them sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches. As soon as the words were out of Derek's mouth, Stiles had the urge to laugh. He knew this was how it went every year; the parents went out to but gifts for their children, even though they didn't need to. Sure it made some jobs up at the North Pole a little easier, but the motion that the parents had to do it was absurd. The fact that they didn't believe, and probably hadn't since they were young children, was so sad and so funny that even though Stiles felt bad that Derek didn't know what he did, he wanted to laugh. And of course he wanted to tell Derek all about everything, even though it would probably get him locked up. 

Instead of asking Derek anything about the day’s agenda, he watched the man make their breakfast and kept his mouth, relatively, shut. 

...

“So what all are we trying to get?” Stiles asked an hour later as he and Derek walked around a toy store, pushing around a shopping cart that would no doubt be full by the time they were done. 

“Just some things that the girls have mentioned wanting,” Derek said, steering the two of them down the first aisle, the one that held multiple different types of Barbie dolls. 

“Is this stuff on their Christmas list?”

“Probably, all year they tell me things they want, and I write it down. When the next thing comes out, usually they don't want the first thing anymore. Whatever they still have an interest toward around Christmas time is usually what I get.”

“You don't get them toys throughout the year?” Stiles asked, raising an eyebrow and smiling at the older man. 

Derek rolled his eyes. “I do not spoil those two.”

“Sure you don't.”

“I don't,” Derek said, stopping his casual pace down the aisle to stare at Stiles. 

Stiles raised his hands in surrender. “Whatever helps you sleep at night dude.”

“Don't call me dude,” Derek grumbled, and started walking again. 

Since Derek had started walking, Stiles knew that he wasn't in too much trouble. 

The two of them walked down the first few aisles, Derek picking up things as they walked by. Every time Derek grabbed something, he grabbed it as if he knew exactly what he was grabbing. Stiles guessed that he did know exactly what it was, and what he was looking for, but that wasn't the point. He was still impressed. 

“Alright, looks like we've got almost everything,” Derek said a few aisles later. 

Stiles looked into the cart quizzically. He had thought they would have a cart piled with toys but in reality they had the Monster High Fearleader 3 pack, the Monster High Dismember Council, a Furreal Friends Snuggimals Snug-a-Floppy (Sheepdog Puppy), and a Furreal Friends Snuggimals Snug-a-Daisy Lamb Pet. With only four boxes in the cart, it was easy to read the exact name of what Derek had grabbed, but hard to believe that that was all they were buying. 

“Is this all we're getting?” Stiles asked.

“No,” Derek said, taking the cart down to the end of the aisle they were in, looking around, and walking on when he didn't find what he wanted. “I need to talk to one of the workers about the last thing I need to get here.”

“And that would be?”

“A Little Tikes Endless Adventures Tikes Town Playhouse,” Derek said, sounding like he was reciting something. 

Stiles raised an eyebrow. “Do you have that memorized?”

“I had to.”

A moment later a worker walked down the same aisle Derek and Stiles had walked down, and came closer to them, keeping a smile on his face. 

“Is there anything I can help you gentlemen with?” The man asked. 

“Yes,” Derek said, smiling back at the man. “I need a Little Tikes Endless Adventures Tikes Town Playhouse.”

“Okay,” the man said, nodding. “I can ring you up at the register, and then grab one from the back, if that'll work.”

Derek nodded, flashing another smile. “That'll work perfectly.”

The man led Derek and Stiles up to the register and had Derek take the things out of his cart and put them on the counter so he could ring them up. The man then pressed some buttons on his computer, to add the play house to the bill Stiles assumed, and told Derek how much he owed. Stiles thought he was going to choke at the price, but when the worker said “Your total today is $553.27, sir” all Derek did was get his credit card out. He looked completely unfazed, as if he had been expecting to pay exactly that. As soon as Derek paid, the worker walked to the back and got the last thing on Derek's list. Within no time, Derek and Stiles were packing presents into the back of Derek's car. 

“Dude, you just paid over five hundred dollars and you said this wasn't all you were getting for them. How did you not have a heart attack in there?” Stiles asked, slightly flailing as he got into the passenger seat. 

“Toys are expensive,” was all Derek gave as an explanation. 

“What else are you getting for them?”

“Only a few more things, don't worry Stiles I do know when to stop.”

“So you do have some sort of control when it comes to them.”

“Yes I do,” Derek said, keeping his eyes fixed straight on the road. Stiles knew that Derek was scowling, and that that scowl would be pointed in his direction if the other man wasn't driving and trying to keep the two of them, and the very expensive merchandise, from getting into a deadly accident. 

“What are the few more things then?”

“I guess you'll see when we get to the house,” Derek said, smirking with the knowledge that his answer would piss Stiles off. 

Stiles sighed in exasperation. “Why are you still such a sourwolf?”

“Because it annoys you.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Thanks for that.”

“Not a problem.”

...

As promised, Stiles got to know what else Derek was buying for his daughters when they got back to Derek's house. Unfortunately, it wasn't right when they walked in the door that the werewolf let the human in on the information. First, Derek told Stiles that they needed to get the toys in the house, and hidden, before he would say anything. Then Derek said that they should have something to eat, so the two of them made sandwiches. Finally, when Derek told Stiles that he needed to grab his laptop out of his room, and didn't say what he needed to use it for, that was the end of Stiles's patience. 

“Alright Derek,” Stiles said, following the older man into his bedroom, “You're not putting this off any longer, what else are you getting?”

Derek walked past Stiles, who had stopped in the doorway to the room, and carried his laptop out into the kitchen. Once there, he placed the laptop down on the table and pulled one of the other chairs close to the one he would be sitting in.

“I don't know why this is annoying you so bad,” Derek said, keeping his eyes trained on his laptop, but talking to Stiles. “But I'm going to be ordering the rest of the stuff right now, so if you want to know sit down in the chair that I just pulled up.”

With a bit of a blush adorning his cheeks, one that Stiles was pretty sure Derek knew about, he took a seat next to Derek and watched over the man’s shoulder as he logged in to his computer. 

“That's a really cute picture,” Stiles said, looking at the screensaver on Derek's computer. 

Looking back at him was the three Hales that he was living with, but two of them were quite a bit younger. Instead of two six year olds, Ava and Bailey looked to be only about three. They had matching white dresses on that had pink, light blue, and lime green polka dots, and long pieces of fabric tied behind them. The two girls seemed to be running around a kneeling Derek in the picture. Derek had on a white button up shirt that had the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a big smile on his face as he looked at his smiling twins. 

“Thanks,” Derek said, opening up a new google chrome page, and quickly typing in the URL americangirl.com. 

“You're getting them American girl dolls?” Stiles asked, watching the web page go from Google to the American girl website. 

“Yeah, they saw the commercial for them and decided they wanted one. We went through the website a few times before they finally decided which dolls they want.”

“And which ones do they want?”

“Ava wants the doll Caroline who lived during the War of 1812 and I'm also getting the dolls winter coat with skating gear and her holiday gown. Bailey on the other hand wants the doll Rebecca who lived in New York City in 1914. For that doll I'm also getting the school play set and her winter coat.”

After getting the information that he wanted, Stiles was willing to sit back in his seat and watch as Derek went to work on ordering the dolls and extra outfits. Stiles found it interesting to watch Derek on the computer. When Stiles had known Derek years ago, he never would have thought the man would touch a computer. He just seemed like the type of guy to rather use any other method to find what he needed, no matter how much more convenient using a computer would have been. Now it was the complete opposite. The older man worked his way around the website like a pro, not taking any extra time maneuvering the buttons or the mouse pad, and finding exactly what he needed in no time at all. Something about watching Derek use a computer intrigued Stiles, even if he was completely unwilling to admit to that out loud. 

Only moments after Derek had finally told Stiles what he was getting for the girls, Derek was putting away his credit card and closing his laptop. Derek stretched back over the back of the chair, bringing his hands above his head and pulling his shirt up just enough for Stiles to be able to see a strip of skin. 

“Alright so the girls should be home any moment,” Derek said, settling back in his chair properly. “Peter is coming to take them for the night so that we can wrap the presents that we got today and then he's going to bring them home some time tomorrow morning.”

“Wait did you say Peter?” Stiles asked, mind rushing to think of some name alternative that could sound like Peter, or even a different Peter that both he and Derek would know. “As in Peter Hale?”

Derek looked at Stiles in confusion. “Of course as in Peter Hale, what other Peter would I be talking about?”

“I don't know, but a man can hope. So the girls like him?”

“Yeah, he's not exactly the same maniac that you knew. And he's good with the girls.”

“Okay,” Stiles said, sighing in defeat. “I guess I'll have to deal with it huh?”

“No, you can always go upstairs when he gets here. Sure he'll know that you're here but that doesn't mean you have to talk to him.”

Stiles knew what Derek was doing, and knew that he should be grateful for it. And he was. He was grateful that Derek was giving him a way to stay away from Peter, which was nice considering their past, but he could tell that Derek didn't want Stiles to run off. Whether Derek wanted Stiles to stay so he didn't have to talk to the man alone, which somehow Stiles knew wasn't the case, or he had some other reason to keep Stiles around while Peter was in the house, Stiles didn't know. What Stiles did know was that if the girls liked Peter then there was probably going to be more times than just this one that he was going to see the older man. If that was the case then it would be easier to see the man now instead of avoiding him every time possible and then get caught once and have to explain why he had been so reluctant to catch up. If Derek knew that Peter would be around quite a bit, he knew that it would be better to face him now. Maybe that was Derek's reason for wanting Stiles to stay, and maybe it wasn't, but the look on Derek's face, the one that made Stiles think he couldn't go upstairs for a while, made it clear that no matter what Derek's reasoning, Stiles was going to get to see and talk to Peter Hale. 

“It's okay Derek, I think I can take him,” Stiles said, making motions with his hands to look like he was boxing, which made Derek roll his eyes. “What time is he coming to pick them up?”

“I'm supposed to call him after the girls get home which I can hear the bus so they should be running through the door any moment now.”

Without any hesitation, the two girls came running through the front door and made a beeline for the kitchen. Derek and Stiles had stood up from their seats, preparing for their usual greeting from the two, and were in no way disappointed. The girls went from Derek to Stiles then they immediately threw their backpacks near the chairs they usually sat in for dinner. Stiles took the seat he had vacated, and Derek grabbed his cell phone to call his uncle. 

After Peter was notified that the girls were home and ready to go, they had packed their overnight things the night before out of excessive excitement, Derek took his normal seat and the two girls took off with stories about their day. The four stayed like that until the three werewolves could hear Peter's car pull up in the driveway and the girls ran upstairs to get their things. 

“Watch out Derek, I can't promise to say calm,” Stiles said with a grin as the door opened and Peter walked into the kitchen. 

“It's nice to see you too Stiles,” Peter said, earning a mischievous grin from Stiles. The older man quickly took his attention off of Stiles though, in favor of looking at Derek with both of his eyebrows raised, and a knowing smile pulling at his lips. “So you have a house guest?” He asked his nephew. 

Derek's face hardened, making Stiles wonder what subtext Peter had put into his one question. Stiles had thought that Derek and Peter now got along, but the look on Derek's face made it seem like they had gone back in time. 

“Yes I do,” Derek answered, his teeth clenched.

“Stiles is certainly an interesting person to have as a house guest Derek.”

“What is your point?”

Peter smiled like he had information on Derek that he could, and would, use as blackmail. The smile told Stiles the older man hadn't changed as much as Derek had made it sound. “You know my point Derek, but that's a subject for another day. Where are the girls?”

“They're up in their room getting their stuff,” Stiles jumped in, keeping Derek from talking. From looking at the expression on Derek's face Stiles figured that it would be safer for everyone if he did the talking at least for a moment.

Peter nodded. “So how have you been Stiles?”

“Can't complain, I've got a good job, still around my friends, and my dad moved near me. What about you?”

“Same as always, just a little less supernatural activity since your group left.”

“Sounds nice,” Stiles said, immediately finding himself at a loss for words. What in the world was he supposed to tell Peter Hale?

Thankfully, the moment Stiles became uncharacteristically tongue tied was the moment that Ava and Bailey came running downstairs. 

“There's my favorite little girls,” Peter said with a smile that actually looked surprisingly genuine. 

Ava and Bailey ran to Peter, who was kneeling down to their height, and wrapped their small arms around his neck to hug him. When they let him go, and Peter straightened back up, he had the girls' bags in his hand. 

The girls immediately started tugging on Peter's hands, pulling him toward the door so they could go. 

“Aren't you two going to say goodbye to your dad?” He asked them. 

The girls looked slightly embarrassed but went straight to Derek and hugged and kissed him goodbye, telling him that they would see him tomorrow morning. 

When the girls let go of their dad they ran to the front door, putting on their shoes and then going out to Peter's car. They had gone places with their great uncle enough to know what to do in his car. Derek, Stiles, and Peter made their way to the front door a little slower, even though Peter still had his shoes on and definitely hadn't needed to be walked out. 

“It was nice seeing you Stiles, you two have a good night,” Peter said on his way out the door. 

As soon as Peter had left the driveway, and a few moments after so Stiles could be sure that the man was out of earshot, Stiles turned to Derek. “That was a lot more awkward than I thought it was going to be.”

Derek was slumped against the closed door, looking exhausted in a way that Stiles hadn't been expecting. Whatever had crossed between the two older Hales, it had definitely stressed Derek out

“He's not usually like that.”

“That's exactly how he used to be.”

“I know, but I swear he's gotten a lot better.”

For a moment neither male spoke. Stiles looked Derek up and down assessing how he looked and wondering what exactly Peter had been talking about. 

“I'm guessing you don't want me to ask about what Peter was implying,” Stiles said after a pause, guessing that Derek would probably rather forget what had just happened. 

“Please don't.”

“Did I just hear Derek Hale use the word please?” Stiles said, trying to lighten the mood and bringing a hand up to his mouth in pretend, or not so pretend, shock. 

Derek rolled his eyes but was smiling as he pushed off the door. “Shut up Stiles,” he said, walking back into the kitchen. “I'll make some soup for our dinner and then we can watch some television before we start wrapping presents, sound good?”

“Sounds great. What type of soup are you making?”

“Whatever canned kind you want.”

“Oh, I get the _canned_ kind then? No homemade stuff since Ava and Bailey aren't here?”

Derek rolled his eyes, knowing that Stiles was trying to push his buttons. “Fine you don't get to choose, go find something for us to watch and I'll make the soup.”

“Fine,” Stiles said and went to find something to watch. 

When Derek walked into the living room and saw that Stiles was watching a Dance Moms marathon, he knew immediately that he shouldn't have even thought about letting Stiles choose. 

...

Six episodes of Dance Moms later, Derek stood up from the couch and stretched his back until a series of popping noises sounded through the room. 

“Alright, are you ready to wrap the presents?”

“I was born ready to wrap presents Derek,” Stiles said around a yawn, standing up from the couch, turning off the television. 

Derek rolled his eyes, and realized that the gesture was becoming about as popular as it had been when Stiles had been in high a school. Instead of thinking on that for too long though, he told Stiles to go grab some of the presents, and he grabbed the three different types of wrapping paper, the scissors, and the tape. 

“Why do you need three types of wrapping paper?” Stiles asked when he walked back into the living room and put his armload of presents down. 

“One is for Ava's presents, one is for Bailey's, and one is for the presents that they share.”

“You've got this pretty well planned out.”

“That's what happens when you do it every year. Which presents do you want to wrap?”

“I'll take Bailey's,” Stiles said and Derek handed him the wrapping paper that went with Bailey's presents.

For the most part, the two were silent as they wrapped up the girls' presents. Unless they needed to ask for the scissors or the tape, they were content with just working silently. The presents quickly got wrapped, and the time seemed to go by quickly, making the two men believe that the hour they spent wrapping was only around twenty minutes. The only thing that signified how long they had really been working was the gaining frequency of Stiles's yawns. By the time they had wrapped everything they had bought that day, Stiles was barely keeping his eyes open. 

“Stiles,” Derek said after he had taken care of everything. “You can go up to bed you know.”

“I have to-” Stiles yawned. “I have to help you take care of everything.”

Derek laughed lightly at the other man. “I already took care of everything.”

“Then why am I still down here?”

“I don't know Stiles, you tell me.”

Stiles tried to stand up, but his tired muscles just didn't want to work together with him. So instead of standing up and walking up the stairs himself, he stayed in the spot he had been in for the last hour, head thrown back, and a frustrated groan coming out of his mouth. 

Derek raised an eyebrow. “Do you need help?”

“No Derek I can't get off the floor, but I don't need any help.”

“In that case, I'll see you in the morning,” Derek told Stiles, walking out of the room slowly. 

“No Derek,” Stiles whined. “Please help me.”

Derek walked back over to Stiles and lifted him off the ground by putting his hands under the other man’s arms and lifting. He then picked Stiles up bridal style and carried him up the stairs and to his room. Derek laid Stiles down on the bed, making sure his head was on the pillow. 

“If I weren't so tired I would have complained about the unmanliness I just experienced by you carrying me that way.”

“I know you would have, now go to sleep.”

Within seconds of the command, Stiles was completely asleep. For a moment, Derek warred with himself if he should just let Stiles sleep in the clothes he was wearing, or put him in the pajamas he usually wore. When Derek figured it would be much more comfortable for Stiles to sleep if he was in pajamas, Derek took the clothes off and maneuvered the man into the white t-shirt and plaid pajama pants that were sitting on top of the dresser. 

Once Stiles was comfortably under the covers, which Derek couldn't believe that he had gone so far to make sure Stiles was comfortable, he turned to leave the room. After turning the light off, he muttered a quick “goodnight Stiles” and went to bed himself.


	6. Saturday, December 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter was supposed to be posted on Saturday but I ended up being busy all day and then leaving to go to my friends house right after I got home, so I didn't end up having time to post it. For that, I apologize. Also, and I probably should have said this for the first chapter, the date that is the chapter title is the corresponding date for when I have each of the activities planned out. There isn't too much emphasis put on it, it was more something that I wanted to have. And it was going to also correspond to when I posted, but that didn't end up happening. Again, sorry about not having this posted when it was supposed to be.

Since the next day was not a school day, Stiles did not have to wake up to an alarm and he did not have to wake up early. And not waking up early was definitely something he took advantage of since when he opened his eyes it was already eleven o'clock. He stretched and popped his bones before getting out of the bed, vaguely wondering how he had gotten out of his clothes and into his pajamas the night before. He knew from experience that he was not able to change his clothes himself when he was that tired, so the only other option was that Derek had done it for him. As Stiles exited his room and made his way toward the kitchen, he felt his stomach give a pleasant flip at what Derek had done for him. 

His first plan of action that morning was to tell Derek thank you, but when he entered the kitchen where Derek usually was when he woke up, the older man was nowhere to be seen. _Alright then_ , Stiles thought, leaving the kitchen to explore the rest of the house. _He's probably just still sleeping. I'll go check, and if he is I'll make him breakfast._

Stiles made his way to Derek's room to find that the door was closed. If he had wanted to wake the other man, he would've knocked first, but since all he wanted to do was see if Derek was sleeping or not, he turned the knob and opened the door without any warning to the person inside the room. The first thing Stiles noticed that Derek was not asleep in his bed, and the second thing that Stiles noticed was that Derek was in the room, but he was standing next to his bed, completely naked. 

“Oh my god, I'm so sorry,” Stiles said, willing his eyes to stay up at Derek's face and not look any further down than his chin. Of course that didn't work, and Stiles got to see just how good Derek looked without clothes on.

Derek looked at Stiles, trying to keep his face completely blank. “Are you just going to stand there and gawk or are you going to leave?”

Stiles took one more, completely accidental, look and then he turned and bolted out the door. 

 _Oh my god_ , he thought as he paced in the kitchen. _I just saw Derek Hale naked. Not partly naked and covering the important bits, but completely naked with those bits on display. What the fuck am I supposed to do now? I have to stay here for my assignment but I don't think I can stay here and look Derek in the eyes. He definitely saw me look at his dick, why the fuck couldn't I keep my eyes up on his face._

“Good morning Stiles,” Derek said gruffly, startling Stiles out of his internal monologue. 

“Good morning Derek,” Stiles replied, taking his usual spot at the counter while Derek took his usual spot behind the stove. Derek was making the two of them their usual breakfast, egg and sausage sandwiches, and Stiles could tell that he was using it as a way to keep his eyes off of Stiles. Which Stiles was completely fine with since he knew the moment that the older man glance in his direction, a rose colored blush would tint his cheeks. Stiles though, took the opportunity of Derek not looking at him to take a quick glance just to see what state Derek was in. By taking this chance, Stiles figured out that Derek must have been taking a shower since his hair had not completely dried yet, and that he had hastily gotten dressed after what happened in the bedroom. One look at the olive colored Henley that was just slightly pulled sideways told Stiles how fast Derek had dressed. 

While Derek cooked, it was awkward. It was awkward and horrible and Stiles wanted no part of the thick tension in the air, but he also didn't want to leave. He didn't want to have to go back home and talk of a failed assignment, especially when he knew the father. He didn't want to leave Derek, especially when they were getting close again. And he didn't want to leave the room, because if there was any moment where a less awkward point of conversation arose he wanted to take it. Stiles tried thinking of different things that they could talk about while Derek made breakfast, and while they were eating, but nothing seemed appropriate. Everything that came to mind as a possible point of conversation seemed like it would just make the entire situation much more awkward. 

By the time the two finished eating, not even two words had been spoken, and it felt to Stiles that the situation had just gotten worse.

Thankfully, just as their mess had been cleaned up, the girls burst through the door, making it so Derek and Stiles wouldn't have to talk for at least a little while. Unfortunately though, Peter made his way into the house right behind the girls. 

“Good morning boys,” he said as a greeting after Ava and Bailey had run upstairs to take care of their things and he had joined Derek and Stiles in the kitchen. 

“Good morning Peter,” Stiles said, trying to force his face into a pleasant smile but knowing it didn't really happen. 

Peter took a moment to look between the two of them. “Something happened between you two,” Peter stated with an eyebrow raised. “I can practically feel the tension. What happened here while you had the house to yourself?”

Stiles knew what Peter was getting at, knew the older man thought the two of them had had sex while he had babysat the girls, but that was absurd. Sure Stiles wanted to, especially after what he had seen earlier, but knew there was no way in hell that Derek wanted to. It made Stiles wonder how close Derek and Peter were if the man didn't know who Derek did and didn't want to have sex with.

“I think it's time that you left Peter,” Stiles said, knowing that he really had no right to tell him to leave since the place wasn't his, but he just couldn't stand Peter being able to tell that something had happened between the two of them. Stiles didn't need him to find out, even if he didn't think there was a way that he would if neither of them were willing to tell him. 

Peter smirked but headed toward the door. Right before he walked out of it, he turned back to tell the two men “don't do anything nasty while the girls are home”. 

“Wow that was even worse than yesterday,” Stiles said the moment Peter was out the door. Sure he knew Peter could probably still hear him, but at that point he didn't especially care. 

“Yes, yes it was.”

“What are we doing today daddy?” Ava asked when she and Bailey entered the room a heartbeat later. 

Derek turned to the girls and smiled, a real smile this time and not one of the awkward ones he had tried to pass to Stiles throughout breakfast. “We're going ice skating.”

The girls cheered. 

“Did you eat breakfast?” Derek asked, stopping the girls' celebration for a moment. 

“Yes daddy,” Bailey told him. 

“And you're already dressed for the day?”

“Yes daddy.”

“Then just go grab some sweatshirts and we can head out.”

The two girls ran off to grab their sweatshirts. As Stiles was going to grab one of his own, he wondered how cold the ice skating arena would actually be. Never before had he gone to one, or ice skate actually, so everything that happened in the next few hours was going to be a new experience. If anything, it would definitely be interesting. 

...

When the four of them got to the arena Derek made a beeline toward a desk that had many people lined up in front of it. By the fact that everyone ahead of them were leaving the line with ice skates, Stiles figured the desk was where they rented the skates they would be using for the duration of their stay. Really, he should have figured that out earlier. 

Derek told the person working what size everyone needed and paid for them after everyone had made sure the skates would fit. 

“Daddy,” Ava said, pulling at the sleeve of Derek's black sweater, “Can we get ice cream?”

Derek looked over to the Dippin Dots that his daughter saw. “We can get it after we skate, does that sound good?”

Ava nodded and joined her sister who was sitting on a bench, pulling the skates on her feet. Derek went over to them and tied them properly and helped them up off the bench. The girls were the first to set foot on the ice, easily picking up on skating, even without needing anything to help them balance, purely because Derek had taken them so many times before. Derek was next, but he stood off to the side of the doorway, waiting for Stiles to step onto the ice as well. Stiles stood at the doorway, knowing that Derek was waiting for him, but unable to take one more step. He knew that he was going to make a complete fool of himself, and definitely wasn't looking forward to it. 

“Are you going to join me?” Derek asked, poking his head around the doorway to look at Stiles. Both of his eyebrows were up in an expectant expression. 

“Yeah, I'm coming.”

Stiles moved his right foot so it was settled on the ice, and when he didn't slip he took it as a good sign. The moment he moved his left foot to join his right though, he started falling. If Derek hadn't been there, the first thing Stiles would have done was fall flat on his ass. 

“Have you ever gone ice skating before?” Derek asked, his arms still wrapped around Stiles in what probably looked like one of the most awkward positions but actually wasn't at all. Stiles definitely didn't feel bad when Derek didn't seem to realize he was still holding Stiles and decided to keep up their conversation without letting go. 

“Of course I have,” Stiles said, laughing slightly to make it seem like what happened was just a joke. 

Even though Stiles couldn't see Derek's face, he knew the man had rolled his eyes. He could practically feel Derek do it. “You do remember that I can tell when you're lying right?”

“Damn.”

“Why didn't you say anything before we left?” Derek said, finally letting go of Stiles. Stiles would have been upset if Derek hadn't wound their fingers together a moment later. Of course he only did that so the two could skate and he could help Stiles stay on his feet. 

“I don't know, I guess I just didn't think it would be that important.”

Derek rolled his eyes again. “Alright then, I guess you'll just be stuck skating with me then.”

Stiles didn't think that sounded like too bad of a thing. 

For the next few hours, the three Hales and Stiles skated around the ice rink. For the most part, Derek took Stiles around and around the outer edge of the rink, keeping him away from the other people that were skating or playing games, and helping him keep his balance by at the very least holding his hand. Ava and Bailey skated with them for a little while, skating circles around the pair and talking about whatever they thought of, but since there was a group of girls around their age who were also skating, they eventually asked Derek if they could skate with them. Of course Derek couldn't say no, so Ava and Bailey were allowed to skate with the other girls but Stiles knew that Derek had every sense working on overdrive so he could keep watch of his daughters. Stiles liked that Derek was so protective of the girls, and was also thankful that Derek could multitask very well since if he couldn't, Stiles probably would have fallen on his ass. There were only a few times where Stiles needed to take a moment to sit down, and every time he did Derek went with him. The first time Stiles had said something about taking a little break, he had figured that Derek would help him over to where he could sit down, but would then go off and skate by himself for a little while. Instead, Derek had told him that he would sit with him for as long as he needed to sit. Stiles figured that meant that the awkwardness from that morning had dissipated. 

By the end of their time at the rink, Stiles could skate by himself, without help from Derek. The two still took circles around the edge of the rink, preferring to skate and talk, and Stiles was surprised to find hold hands, than to do any fancy skating like the other people. Stiles knew he wasn't ready for that anyway. 

The only thing that confused him though was the hand holding. He understood it when he could barely stand up on his own, but once he could do that it didn't make any sense. The only explanation for it was that Derek had wanted to, and Stiles knew that was impossible. 

When the girls' friends had left, and Ava and Bailey had made their way over to where Stiles and Derek were, Derek told them that they would be leaving too. The two didn't whine about it like Stiles had thought they would, but instead took the more positive side and focused on the fact that they were getting ice cream. 

“Here,” Derek said after everyone had taken off their ice skates and handing Stiles thirty dollars, “I'll take care of the ice skates, and you can take the girls to get the Dippin Dots okay?”

“Okay,” Stiles said to Derek and then turned to the girls. “Let’s go get your ice cream,” he said to them with a smile. 

Ava and Bailey walked on either side of Stiles as they approached where the Dipping Dots were being sold. 

“What kind do you girls want?” Stiles asked Ava and Bailey as the people in front of them ordered. 

“We want the birthday cake,” Ava said. 

“And daddy wants cookies and crème,” Bailey added. 

Stiles was thankful that Bailey knew what kind Derek wanted because he had completely forgotten to ask. Now the only problem was that he didn't know what sizes they usually got.

“Do you know what size your dad usually gets you?”

“Small,” Bailey told him, “Because we can't finish the bigger ones.”

Stiles smiled. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome,” both girls replied brightly. 

When the guy working asked what Stiles wanted, he rattled off their order of two small birthday cakes, one medium cookies and crème, and one medium chocolate chip cookie dough. The guy made what he asked for, told Stiles the total that was a lot more than he had even expecting, and Stiles paid for the ice cream. 

With the girls holding their own Dippin Dots and Stiles holding his and Derek's, the three of them met up with Derek near the front doors. Stiles gave Derek his as soon as they met up. 

“How did you know what kind I liked?” Derek asked in confusion. 

“Bailey told me,” Stiles replied. 

Derek smiled at his daughter. “Good job.”

Bailey smiled. 

“So what now?” Stiles asked as the four made their way to the car. On the way through the parking lot Ava took Derek's hand that wasn't holding his ice cream, and Bailey took Stiles's.

“I was thinking we could go rent some movies on the way home and just watch them for the rest of the night.”

“That sounds fun.”

Staying true to his plan, Derek stopped at a movie rental place on the way back to the house. They rented four movies that everyone wanted to see, or really ones that Ava and Bailey wanted to see and Derek and Stiles agreed to, and then they went back to the house. The four of them changed into pajamas, Stiles made some popcorn, and no one moved from the couch, except when they decided to eat dinner, for a very long time. It wasn't until a little after dark, and the girls started getting antsy, that anyone moved again. Derek was the first to move then, getting up off the couch and taking the girls with him. 

“Where are you guys going?” Stiles asked, wondering why they would leave when there was still an hour before the end of their last movie.

“Did you look at the calendar today Stiles?” Derek asked, looking back at the man. 

“Uh, no. What's special about today?”

As soon as the question was out of Stiles's mouth, he realized what was going on. Even though he hadn't looked at the calendar, and hadn't since he'd gotten there, Stiles knew that today was the full moon. The girls were getting antsy because they were trying to keep control. Other than what Derek had told Deaton when they had visited the man, Stiles had no idea how good Ava and Bailey were with the full moon. He guessed though, that they must be okay if they hadn't gotten antsy until it started getting dark. Stiles remembered how bad Scott had been for an entire week before the full moon. 

At Stiles's look of realization, Derek took the girls down to the basement. 

Stiles stayed in the living room and watched the last hour of the movie before going to bed.


	7. Sunday, December 7

Instead of waking up peacefully, and on his own, Stiles was abruptly woken up by two six year olds jumping on either side of him. Because of the full moon the night before, Stiles had been expecting the girls to be asleep for a lot longer, but apparently that wasn't something they needed. Stiles's barely conscious mind made a mental note to ask Derek about it later. 

“Stiles, Stiles, Stiles,” the two singsonged when they noticed the man starting to open his eyes. 

“Huh? What is it?”

“Daddy was called into work,” Bailey said. 

“He left you this note,” Ava said, handing Stiles a piece of notebook paper. 

Stiles took the paper and blinked a few times until the words were no longer blurred. _Stiles,_ it began, _I was called into work today so I need you to watch over the girls. I should be home around five and I'll bring dinner with me. Sorry, Derek._

Stiles rolled his eyes at the fact that Derek thought that he needed to apologize about being called into work and having Stiles watch the girls. It wasn't like Derek could help it that his co-workers needed him, and Stiles liked the girls. He knew when the sourwolf got home he'd have to say something. 

“Alright, what do you guys want to do?” Stiles asked when the girls sat down on either side of him and snuggled down into the blankets. 

“We want to stay in our pajamas all day,” Ava said, looking at Stiles and smiling. Stiles was starting to get an idea why Derek spoiled the girls. 

“Until we play dress up,” Bailey said, looking at her sister like she had forgotten something very important. 

“Yeah, until we play dress up. Stiles will you play dress up with us?”

“And have a tea party with us?”

The two girls looked at Stiles with matching pouts. Looking at them, Stiles knew there was no way that he was going to be able to say no. 

“Yeah, I'll play dress up and have a tea party with you two. First though, did you guys eat breakfast?”

“No, daddy got called before he could make us anything,” Bailey told him. 

“Okay, then that's what we have to do first. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and there is no way I'm letting you two miss it. Are you ready?” He asked, looking back and forth between the twins that were still under the blankets. 

“Of course we are,” they said together and all three of them climbed out of the bed.

Stiles led Ava and Bailey into the kitchen as he sang follow the leader from Peter Pan. The girls giggled behind him as he did funny dance moves and they did them with him. When he got to the kitchen, he led them to the chairs placed at the counter and helped each of them into one. 

“What would you like on this fine morning?” Stiles asked the two from behind the counter as he bowed at them.  

Ava and Bailey laughed, covering their mouths with small hands. “French toast!” Ava yelled, and Bailey agreed to. 

“French toast it is,” Stiles said with another bow and a flourished turn as he went to grab the supplies. 

All through cooking, Stiles sang songs from Disney movies that the girls could sing along with too. His mother had always done the same thing with him while she was cooking, and he had always enjoyed it so he figured why not do it with Ava and Bailey too. The two girls enjoyed it as he burst into each new song and exaggeratedly moved around as he cooked, and he enjoyed making them laugh. Even when the two didn't know the song, it was okay because Stiles could teach it to them and then the three would be belting it out together. 

When Stiles was almost done with the French toast, the girls got down from their chairs and started setting the table. They got out three plates, three forks, three cups, napkins, milk, and syrup and placed them on the table. After the table was set, they took their spots and Stiles passed out the French toast. 

“Could you cut these for us Stiles?” Ava asked before Stiles sat down. 

“Of course I can,” Stiles said and grabbed a knife from the silverware drawer. 

The three ate their breakfast as Ava and Bailey talked about the things that they wanted to do that day. For the most part the two wanted to dress up and have a tea party, but they also said they wanted to start writing their Christmas lists for Santa. 

“Before we do that we'll have to talk to your dad,” Stiles told the girls, getting matching pouts in return. 

“Don't you think he'll want to be here too?” He asked them. 

The girls nodded and then helped Stiles clean up the table. 

The first thing the girls wanted to do was play dress up. They dragged Stiles up to their play room as soon as the kitchen was clean, and started picking out the stuff they were going to wear. Stiles sat on the ground, leaning against the wall, and waited for them to give him something to put on. First Ava brought him a bright orange feather boa and put it around his neck. Next Bailey brought him a white hat that had a big purple flower on the front of it and put it on his head. 

“How do I look?” He asked when the twins stood in front of him and looked at him like they were inspecting what they had chosen. 

“Great!” The two said, “Now it's our turn to get dressed up,” Ava added. 

The two girls picking their outfits took a lot longer than it had for them to find things for Stiles to wear. After telling Stiles how good he looked in his hat and boa, they walked over to the room’s large closet. When they pulled back the doors, Stiles knew it was going to take them awhile to choose just by the sheer amount of play clothes they had stuffed into the closet. The floor was covered in shoes, the top shelf was covered in boxes with who knew what in them, and there were pegs on the sides that held different types of jewelry. Stiles watched from his seat on the floor as Ava and Bailey tried on dress after dress, slipping them over the pajamas that they wore, and usually trading after deciding that they didn't want to wear the one they had grabbed. Each of them grabbed six dresses out of the closet, and swapped them, before finally deciding on one. Each with a dress in hand, the two ran out of the play room and into the closest bathroom. 

When the two came back in they were each wearing the dress they had carried out of the room and a smile on their face. Ava's was a strapless, light pink dress with a polka dot pattern. Her dress was layered, making it poof out a bit when she walked, and it reached well onto the floor, making the little girl kick it while she walked. Bailey's on the other hand was a deep purple dress that had sleeves that went a little past her hands. The sleeves made Stiles think about the leather jacket that Derek had worn when the two had first met, and how the sleeves went down past his knuckles. Bailey's dress wasn't quite as long as her sisters, and only came down to her calves. 

“You two look beautiful,” Stiles told them when they walked past him on their way back to the closet full of clothes. 

The two of them both said thank you in a quiet voice that Stiles wasn't used to associating with them. 

“You're very welcome,” he said. “What are you looking for now?” 

“Shoes,” Ava said as she and Bailey both reached down to the floor and picked out pairs of shoes that matched the color of their dresses. 

With the shoes and dresses picked out, Stiles wondered what else the twins would need to find before they decided they were ready for their tea party. He figured they probably had quite a bit, so when the two of them walked over to him, and stood in front of him with matching innocent expressions, and their hands behind their backs, Stiles knew whatever else they needed had something to do with him. 

“Stiles,” Ava started sweetly, “Can you do our hair for us?”

Stiles smiled, thinking that he should have seen that coming. “Of course I can. What would you two like me to do?”

“Surprise us,” Bailey said. 

For the next half hour, Stiles worked on Ava's and Bailey’s hair. He didn't want to give the girls the same hairstyle, since they were always insisting on how different they were, but there was still only so much Stiles knew how to do. French braiding and fishtail braiding was what he did most, and what he had become good at, but he liked to make the hairstyles he did for the girls more unique than just the normal braid. With fishtail braids, he hadn't figured out how to make it different, but with French braids his favorite thing was to have braids above the girl’s ears that would then lead into the French braid. The style took a while, and since Bailey was the one that asked for it first, she had to sit still for twenty minutes compared to her sisters ten. 

“Stiles,” Bailey complained from the chair in front of Stiles. 

“I know Bailey, I'm almost done.”

“That's not what I was going to say,” the girl replied. 

“I'm sorry. What were you going to say then?” Stiles asked as he finally put a ponytail holder at the end of the braid. 

Bailey hopped down from the chair with a smile on her face and have Stiles a hug as her thank you. When she pulled away though, the look on her face wasn't the bright smile she had had just moments ago. 

“What's wrong Bailey?” Stiles asked, immediately feeling worried. 

“I'm hungry,” she said and Stiles immediately felt better. Hungry he could deal with, sick made him nervous. 

“We could make finger sandwiches for our tea party,” Stiles suggested and got matching grins in response. He felt pretty confident with the fact that the girls liked his idea. “Before we go downstairs though you have to take the shoes off, I don't want you to trip and fall.”

Ava and Bailey took off their shoes, leaving them right next to the door to their play room, and sprinted down the stairs. Stiles thought about calling out and telling them they still needed to be careful because of the dresses, but before he got the chance the two were at the bottom of the staircase, looking up at him with a hint of impatience. The look was definitely one they had gotten from their father. Just one impatient look from the twins sent Stiles back to years ago in Beacon Hills when Derek would look at him in the same way every time he did or said something Derek thought was stupid. Which happened a lot back then, so Stiles was well accustomed to the look. 

“What's taking you so long?” Ava whined.

“Some of us are old,” Stiles joked as he reached the final step and followed the girls back into the kitchen. 

“You are pretty old,” Bailey said, “But not as old as daddy so you have no excuse.”

Stiles wasn't sure if he should feel insulted or complimented. Since Bailey was only six, and she had said that he was younger than Derek and implied that Derek had used the same excuse, he was going to go with complimented. Honestly, he probably would have gone with complimented even if Bailey had been older and had meant to insult him. At the point in time, that was how close to Derek's daughters he had become. 

“Alright,” Stiles said, looking at the girls who were getting paper plates and butter knives out of their respective places. “What kinds of sandwiches do you want for your tea party?”

“Peanut butter and jelly,” Ava said. 

“Ew no, jelly is gross,” Bailey said to her sister and then turned to Stiles. “Ham and cheese please.”

“You can't only put ham and cheese on a sandwich Bailey, you need more,” Ava said, making a gesture with her hands that she was using to insist her point to her sister. “We want peanut butter and jelly.”

Before Bailey could protest again and tell Ava that jelly was gross, he told the girls that they could have both kinds of sandwiches. The two looked like they hadn't thought about that, but happily went along when Stiles started taking the needed ingredients out of the refrigerator and one of the cupboards, and started making the sandwiches. Even though the two hadn't said anything about how they wanted the sandwiches cut, Stiles went ahead and took the crust off and cut each sandwich into four small triangles. With only him and two young girls being the ones to eat the sandwiches, he only made four. One peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Ava, one ham and cheese sandwich for Bailey, and one more of each sandwich for himself. He had to go with Ava on the ham and cheese sandwich though, it did need something more, and that more happened to be mustard. Which fully disgusted both Ava and Bailey to the point where they forgot about what they didn't like about each other’s choice.

“Does your dad let you eat in the play room?” Stiles asked as he took care of his supplies. He had stacked the four sandwiches on one plate, but had made sure that none of the insides were touching. He wanted to make it look like they would all be sharing every piece, but knew the risk he faced if he let anything mix. 

“No,” the two said together. 

“Then why don't you girls go get your shoes and your tea party stuff and we’ll have the party right here at the table, does that sound good?”

The girls nodded and ran off to get the last things needed for their tea party. For the next few hours, the three sat at the table, slowly eating their sandwiches and drinking pretend tea.

It wasn't until Derek would be heading home that the girls realized that there was one more thing that they wanted to do. 

“Ava!” Bailey said, obviously the first one to remember what they wanted Stiles to help them with. 

“What Bailey?” Ava asked, shooting her sister a look since she had been telling Stiles a story when her sister had interrupted her. 

“We needed Stiles to help us with our lists before daddy came home!”

Ava widened her eyes, quickly forgetting her short bout of anger toward her sister. “That's right,” she said, and suddenly the twins weren't sitting drinking tea with Stiles, they were grabbing pens and paper and handing them to a confused looking Stiles. 

“We need to call your dad first girls, you know he'll want to be here,” he said, setting the pens and paper on the table in front of him and motioning for the girls to sit back down. 

“We don't want daddy to know about this part,” Ava said and both girls looked at Stiles with pleading looks on their faces. Stiles couldn't say no if he tried. 

“Alright, whose am I writing first?” He asked, picking up an orange pen and moving a piece of paper from the stack the girls had given him. 

“Bailey's, that's her pen.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Dear Santa,” Bailey said. “This is something special that I want that you won't be able to fit in a box. I want my daddy to be happy.”

“Don't you think he's happy?” Stiles asked, interrupting the young girl. 

“Of course he's happy,” Bailey insisted, “But we know he gets lonely when were at school and his attention isn't on what's most important.”

Stiles laughed when he realized Bailey meant her and her sister was what was really important. His laugh wasn't because he thought she was wrong, because he knew in Derek's world she was completely right, he just thought it was funny that she was so confident about it. And he also thought it was adorable, but he wouldn't be telling Derek just how adorable he thought it was. 

“We want daddy to be less lonely,” Ava added, finishing up what Bailey had started. 

“Okay, how about I tell Santa that you want your dad to be less lonely, does that sound good?”

“Great,” the girls said. 

Stiles wrote down what the girls wanted him to, thinking that what they had just told him was what he should have been focusing on since he had arrived. He should have been trying to get the girls to tell him that, because that had been his assignment, but he had gotten caught up in living with the Hales and had completely lost track of what he was doing. At least now he could report that he had the first part of his assignment done. 

Once Stiles had written the letters out, he sent the girls upstairs with them so they could hide them. It must have been luck, because the moment the girls had reached the second floor, Derek walked through the door, holding a bucket of chicken in his hand. The first thing he saw when he walked into the kitchen was Stiles sitting at the table, surrounded with the girl’s tea set, and wearing the hat and boa. 

“You look beautiful,” Derek said, setting the chicken bucket down on an empty spot on the table. “The girls roped you into a tea party?”

“Yeah,” Stiles said with a laugh. “You might want to hurry though, they want to write their letters and I don't think you're going to get them to wait much longer.”

Derek laughed this time and started moving the tea set off the table and onto a surface that they wouldn't be needing. He started getting everything set up for the four of them to eat dinner, and was soon helped by his daughters and Stiles. 

“We get to write our letters as soon as were done eating right?” Ava asked when everyone was sitting down and starting to eat. 

“Yes but don't even think about shoving that food down quickly, you know you could get a stomach ache.”

Derek received two groans but the girls continued to eat their meal at a normal pace. 

“How was work?” Stiles asked Derek. 

Derek shrugged, chewing the piece if chicken he had just put into his mouth. “It was fine, the project just needed one more set of hands so it could get finished and everyone could have the rest of the month off.”

“You're such a good boss,” Stiles cooed, laughing at the glare he got in response. 

“Shut up Stiles,” Derek said, but knew there was no way the man would actually stop. He hadn't all those years ago so why would he now. It was a good instinct though, since for the rest of dinner Stiles just asked Derek things about his work day so that he could make jokes about Derek being a good boss. It was easy to see that Stiles was enjoying the jabs, and it became obvious that the twins were too when they could barely eat they were laughing so hard. Derek was completely ready when everyone finished eating, even though he knew that wouldn't stop Stiles from making jokes. He just knew that it would distract the girls and give Stiles less encouragement. 

Immediately after the table was cleaned, the girls spread out their pens and paper again. Ava gave Derek her pen and started rattling off the things that she wanted and Bailey did the same to Stiles. Stiles noticed that the things the girls told him and Derek were mostly the things that he and Derek had already bought. He did wonder though, how Derek dealt with the things on their lists that weren't things that he had bought. Surely he wouldn't just go out and buy more things, but Stiles wasn't completely sure about that. 

The girls took the papers from Derek and Stiles once they were done being written and placed them in envelopes. The adults wrote out the address and put on the stamps, and Derek promised that the letters would be sent out the next time someone left the house. Once they got what they needed, the girls ran upstairs. 

“See Stiles,” Derek said, taking care of the pens and the unused paper. “Everything they told us had already been bought.”

Stiles didn't know how to answer. He knew that Derek had only worked with Ava, and didn't really hear what Bailey had told Stiles to write down, but there was no way that Ava had only told Derek things that he already had for her. Stiles was sure that there was no way Bailey was the only one asking for more, so how did Derek think that neither of them had asked for other things? Stiles didn't know, but figured it was best not to say anything about it to Derek. Instead, he just smiled and told Derek that he was going to go upstairs for a while. Derek nodded, and told him that he probably wouldn't be staying up much longer anyways, and that he would see him in the morning. 

...

“I assume you have something Mr. Stilinski?” Stiles's boss said the moment he picked up the phone. 

“I do, but there's also some other things.”

“Okay, go ahead when you're ready.”

“First off, I was helping the girls with their lists today, before Derek got home, and they had me write out an extra letter that they didn't want their dad to see. My assignment is to find someone that is going to make Derek happier, and less lonely, but I have no idea how I'm going to manage that one.”

Stiles could hear the smile in his boss' voice when the man said, “I'm sure you'll figure it out.” 

Something about the sentence made Stiles think that there was something more to the situation that he didn't know about, but he decided not to press it. He had other things that needed to be discussed. “My second thing is that when Derek and I were helping the girls write their actual lists, they asked for some things that Derek hadn't already bought, like normal. But when I talked to Derek, he said that he had already bought everything on their lists.”

“And you want to know why he thought that.”

“Yes sir.”

“It's just like how on Christmas morning, Derek will think that everything under the tree is something he bought.”

“Oh,” Stiles said, thinking that he probably should have realized that. “Well then that's all I needed sir.”

“Thank you for checking in Stiles, call if there's any other problem.”

With one more, quick “yes sir” from Stiles, Mr. Clause hung up. Stiles sat his phone down on the bedside table and decided that he would see what Derek was doing. When he got downstairs and every light was off, he knew that the older man had decided to go to bed earlier than Stiles had thought he would. He realized that he hadn't gotten a chance to ask Derek about what had happened the night before, and decided he would try to remember sometime that week. If he remembered the next day it would be a miracle.

With no reason to stay downstairs, Stiles made his way back to his room and played around on his phone until he fell asleep with it in the position of where it had fallen when Stiles had fallen asleep; propped against his face.


	8. Tuesday, December 9

The last few moments of Stiles's conscious thought had been used repeating the same words (“ask Derek about the full moon”) over and over again until he had eventually fallen asleep. He hadn't been sure if that would help him remember to ask Derek or not, but he had hoped. To his immense surprise the next morning, the first complete thought he had was ask Derek about the full moon. 

Stiles wasted no time and practically ran downstairs, praying that he wouldn't forget on his trip to the kitchen where he knew Derek would be. 

“You're up a little early aren't you?” Derek asked when Stiles rushed into the kitchen. He hadn't been expecting the man to wake up for another half an hour. 

Stiles ignored the question. “What happened with the girls on the full moon?”

“Why are you only now asking me this? The full moon was days ago.”

“I kept forgetting okay. Did everything go okay?”

“Of course it did. If it hadn't the girls wouldn't have been as energetic the next day as they had been.”

“So they were able to control it?”

Derek shrugged. “They did okay. They still got a little furry but nothing too bad. They're still young; they're doing pretty good considering that fact.”

Stiles sighed in relief, not realizing just how worried about Ava and Bailey he had really been. It didn't make sense to be that worried anyway since he had spent the entire next day with them, doing a million things and never stopping. Stiles wasn't sure why he had been so worried about them, but it was obvious to him that he was. 

“Why were you so worried?” Derek asked, scrunching his face in confusion. Apparently Stiles's worries weren't a secret from everyone else either. 

“No reason,” Stiles said, and turned away. But by doing so he completely missed the fond look that over took Derek's face at his nonchalant dismissal. 

Derek didn’t press the issue. “There isn't much for us to do today, so to the couch?”

Stiles turned toward the living room and lifted up his fist as if he were going to battle. “To the couch,” he said, walking into the living room with Derek following behind him. 

...

At two thirty that afternoon Derek and Stiles got into the car to go pick up the girls. The normal, everyday, routine that Stiles had gotten so used to was destroyed with just the one little action. Of course he didn't mind picking them up from school, it was just weird that him and Derek wouldn't be standing behind the front door, waiting for the twins to run in and wrap their arms around them in turn. Stiles realized he was going to miss doing that one thing, even if it was only for the one day. Then he realized that near the end of the month, it would be for a lot longer than that. And that fact was not something he wanted to dwell on. 

“I don't know if you know what I'm planning on doing with the girls,” Derek said, glancing over at the man in his passenger seat. He realized, when Stiles looked over at him with an expression that practically screamed lack of focus, that he had pulled Stiles out of whatever he was thinking about. The older man let himself wonder for a second what Stiles could be thinking about so intently, but quickly brought himself back to what he was saying. 

“No I don't, I just know you said that we were picking the girls up and that you were having them pick out gifts for each other.”

“Right, well the whole plan is a bit more complicated than that.”

Stiles looked over at Derek and gave him a look that said that Derek should probably get explaining. 

“Well what we're doing is taking the girls to the store, and they're going to get to pick out gifts for each other.”

“How's that going to work, we can't exactly just take both of them at the same time. They'd know exactly what they were getting.”

“That's why I always make sure that someone is available to come with me when it comes time to do this. It's usually Peter, but since you're here I didn't think you would mind doing it instead.”

“Yeah I'd rather interact with Peter the least amount possible.”

Derek pulled into the elementary school parking lot and found a spot close to the front doors before he answered. “I know you would, I'm still sorry for last time,” he said after parking, and looked over at Stiles to watch his reaction.

Stiles shrugged, feeling a bit like he was being analyzed under a microscope. “Last time wasn't the worst time, so I guess I'll live.”

“I'm sorry for all of those too.”

When Derek said those seven words, Stiles saw something flash across his eyes. He wasn't completely sure what the emotion was, but it had made his face soften like when he was looking at Ava and Bailey. Stiles chalked it up to guilt, even though Derek had no reason to be guilty for what his creepy uncle had done, and tried not to think of any other possible explanations that look could've meant. 

“How did this tradition start?” Stiles asked before a question more embarrassing tumbled from his mouth. 

“My parents used to do it with Laura, Cora, and I. I remember it being a bit difficult once Cora came into the picture and was old enough to understand what was going on, but we always enjoyed it.”

“When did you start it with Ava and Bailey?”

“Last year.”

Before Stiles could say anything in response, or get more childhood information on Derek, the two heard the school bell ring and knew that any moment a large cluster of children would be running through the front doors. Derek turned away from Stiles, which made Stiles feel a little relieved and a lot sad because he liked talking to Derek, and started watching out for the two girls. Stiles helped him look, even though he figured Derek would be able to see them before he did, but surprisingly enough Stiles was the one to see them first. 

“Hi daddy, hi Stiles,” the girls said when they jumped into the back seat of the car and started buckling their seat belts. 

Derek started backing out of his parking spot, watching for any other running children. “How was your day?” He asked the girls as he tried to make his way out of the busy parking lot. 

“It was great,” Ava said with a big smile on her face. 

“Susan asked us why we didn't have our hair done,” Bailey said, and Stiles got the feeling he had two little glares pointed at the back of his head. When he looked back to see if he was right though, he found two little girls looking at him, but not glaring. 

“I'm sorry girls, next time if I'm not up and you want me to do your hair just come wake me up.”

Stiles heard Derek whisper “you're giving them an option that you don't want to,” but didn't care, he could handle it. 

“It's okay Stiles,” Bailey said, “She also said that she was jealous of our hair.”

The two girls smiled at each other, sharing a moment to look proud and victorious. Stiles could tell that this Susan girl being jealous of Ava's and Bailey’s hair was something they were very happy about, and vaguely wondered if they liked Susan at all. 

“She also said that she wanted to know where our mommy was getting the ideas,” Ava added after her shared look with Bailey. 

This time Derek and Stiles shared a look. Since Stiles had no prior knowledge on what happened when Kate left Derek and the twins, he had no idea how they had reacted when they learned that they didn't have a mom. From Derek's look though, he could tell that the man was worried about what was going to come because of this, and Stiles wondered if it had been really bad, or if the girls had taken it well. He wondered if Ava and Bailey had come home one day, asking Derek why they didn't have a mommy, and what Derek had told them, and if they had started crying right away or if they had taken it in stride. Stiles knew all those questions were going to have to go on his mental list of questions to ask Derek, because he sure as hell couldn't ask with the girls sitting right behind them. And he also had to remember to keep names out of it, since he wasn't supposed to know who their mom even was. 

“And what did you guys tell her?” Stiles asked, turning around in his seat so he could look at the two girls. He wondered what kinds of emotions Derek was picking up from Ava and Bailey. 

“We told her that it wasn't our mommy, that it was our daddy's friend,” Ava said, practically singing the last word, as if she thought there was more to the word than there should be. 

Stiles thought about turning around and silently asking Derek what that was about, but he didn't want the girls to think that had any effect on him. So instead, he stayed turned around and kept talking with Ava and Bailey. 

Bailey looked over at her sister, momentarily confused, but quickly got over it. “And then we told her that you had come up with the ideas,” she added. 

The two girls smiled at Stiles, so Stiles smiled back at the two of them. He turned back around in his seat and saw that Derek looked a lot more relaxed than he had only a moment ago. Stiles patted Derek's hand, not thinking about the action before it was already done. The only reciprocation he received was Derek looking over at him with a small smile, so Stiles figured it was okay. He knew though, that when they got back to the house, he was going to have a lot of questions for Derek. And one of them would definitely be about what the girls thought was going on between them. 

…

The moment Derek pulled into the parking lot of the store, the girls knew exactly what the plan was. They hurried to unbuckle themselves, and whined impatiently when Derek and Stiles took their time to get out of the car. Ava took Derek's hand, and Bailey took Stiles's as if they already knew how this went, and had already decided who would be going with who. 

“Why don't you take Bailey and go pick out some sweets?” Derek asked Stiles as Ava pulled on his hand to take him toward the toys. 

Stiles and Bailey headed over to the section of the store where they had the food, and located the isle where the sweets would be. Stiles wasn't sure what Derek meant by sweets, if he wanted something they could make or if he wanted bags of candy, or something else. He figure Bailey would probably know, so he decided to tell her she could pick anything out that she wanted. Maybe it wasn't the best decision to give to a six year old, but Stiles did it anyway. 

“Does daddy want candy or cookies or cake or brownies?” Bailey asked Stiles, facing the isle of different boxes and bags with a concentrated look on her face. 

“Well I was hoping that you would know the answer to that.”

Bailey looked back at Stiles. “I don't know what daddy wants. Does that mean that I can pick whatever I want?” She asked, a hopeful and exhilarated expression taking over her face. 

“Yup, go ahead.”

Bailey clapped her hands and turned back to the isle to pick what she wanted. Stiles stood back and took his phone out of his pocket, waiting for Derek to text him and tell him that he and Bailey could head toward the toys now. 

It took the young girl a few moments to pick out what she wanted. When she handed the box of Christmas themed cookies back to Stiles she seemed sheepish, so Stiles gave her a big smile when he took them from her hand and told her that they would be perfect. Then, in perfect timing, Stiles's phone vibrated, hopefully meaning that Derek was done in the toy isle. He checked the message just to be sure, and once he saw the text he and Bailey headed over to where Derek and Ava were leaving, essentially switching places with the other two. 

“Now you get to pick out a gift for your sister,” Stiles said when they got to the isle, waiting for Bailey to let go of his hand and surge forward. 

The little girl didn't let go of his hand though, instead taking him with her. 

“I need your help,” she said, head moving back and forth rapidly as she looked at everything as quickly as she could. 

Stiles took the cookies and put them under his arm so that he had a free hand. He then took the free hand and placed it gently on top of Bailey's head, using it to get the girl to stop moving so quickly. “You can take all the time you want Bailey,” he told her.

“But Stiles,” she whined, “I don't know what to get.”

“What do you think Ava would like?”

“All of it,” she said, looking at Stiles with a pout on her face. “What do I do?”

Stiles really just wanted to shrug, and tell the girl that whatever she got would be perfect, but figured that that wouldn't work on Bailey. From the short amount of time that he had been staying with Derek and the twins, he had learned that the girls were not that easy to pacify. Stiles wondered how difficult that was for Derek, but quickly focused once again on the task at hand. 

“What about this?” Stiles said, picking up a tea set. 

Bailey shook her head. “Ava loves the one we have.”

“This?” He asked after putting down the tea set and picking up a Barbie doll wearing a bright pink, multilayered dress. 

“We have that one.”

Stiles put down the doll and picked up a stuffed puppy. 

Bailey laughed. “Daddy says we can't get any more stuffed animals because we already have too many.”

Stiles smiled. “Alright, how about this?” He asked, picking up a set of different accessories such as white gloves, a small tiara with hot pink jewels, and a matching necklace and earrings. 

Baileys face lit up at the choice. “That's perfect Stiles!” She said, quickly crossing the isle and wrapping her small arms around Stiles's legs. “Thank you for helping.”

“No problem kiddo,” he said. Stiles reached into his pocket and checked his phone. He hadn't felt it vibrate but it must have since he had a text from Derek saying “done, out in the car”. Stiles couldn't help but roll his eyes at Derek's texting abilities. 

“Let’s go pay for your purchases then,” Stiles said, and Bailey immediately grabbed his hand once again. 

When the two got out to the car Derek was playing some sort of game with Ava as they waited. Stiles felt his heart try to give out at the sight. If he had been told he would one day see Derek Hale acting fatherly with a six year old girl, he probably wouldn't have believed it. Even after watching it, he still wasn't completely sure whether it had really happened or not. 

“How'd it go?” Derek asked once Bailey was buckled up in the backseat and Stiles was in the process of buckling up in the front seat. 

“It went great, how about for you?”

“Good, like usual. Did Bailey have a hard time choosing?”

“Yeah, does she usually do that?”

“Yeah. But hey I realized that I had forgotten to give you money to pay for the stuff, remind me and I'll pay you back when we get to the house.”

Stiles shook his head. “Don't worry about it Derek, it didn't put me out too much and I didn't mind.”

“Still, I should've given you money before sending you in there.”

“You're making it sound like I spent a ton of money that I didn't have. I have a job Derek.”

“Yeah but they're not your kids, you shouldn't have to pay for anything.”

“I don't mind Derek, I like the girls. And it was an honest mistake for you to forget, don't worry about that and don't worry about paying me back. If you try the money will just end up back in your pocket.”

“Not if I don't take it back.”

“It's not very hard to just leave it somewhere Derek, I don't have to try and give it back to you.”

Derek scowled and looked over at Stiles. The older man was glaring, reminding Stiles of his high school days when that look being directed at him was completely normal. Stiles just stared back, this was not something he was just going to give up on. Why didn't Derek understand that he didn't need to be paid back for the ten dollars he spent in the store?

When Derek looked away first, Stiles was surprised even though he shouldn't have been. Derek was driving, it made sense that he would have to look away first. But Stiles would bet money that Derek had thought that Stiles would have given up instead of powering through. There was one time when Stiles would have, and he would have been chastising himself for even trying to out stare Derek. These days though, Stiles had seen too much of Derek's soft side to be too scared of the man. He was still positive that Derek could rip his throat out with his teeth, so it would have been smart to still be a little cautious, but that wasn't really part of Stiles's personality. 

“So what's the plan when we get to your house?” Stiles asked after he and Derek had sat in silence for a moment. 

“We split the girls up again and we help them wrap what they got.”

“Good plan.”

When they got back to the Hale house, the girls were the first ones out of the car. They took off toward the house, double bagged presents swinging beside them, and easily made it inside before Derek and Stiles. Stiles didn't know where each of them ran off to, since when he and Derek walked into the house they weren't in the kitchen or the living room, but figured that could wait a minute. Derek was rummaging around in the hall closet, looking for what Stiles assumed to be wrapping paper. The younger man wasn't disappointed when the werewolf turned around and handed him a roll of bright pink paper. He didn't notice until Derek handed it to him, but the paper also had little green Christmas ornaments on it. 

“Where do you think they went?” Stiles asked. 

“I'm guessing Bailey went to your room. Ava's probably in mine.”

Stiles nodded and walked up without another word. When he reached his room, and walked in he saw Bailey sitting on his bed with Ava's present, along with a small roll of tape and some safety scissors in her lap. The plastic bags were discarded on the floor, both on opposite sides of the room. 

“Is it time to wrap it now?” Bailey asked, a hopeful look in her eyes. 

Stiles nodded and got down on the floor, unrolling a bit of the wrapping paper. When he figured he had enough, and tested that by placing the present in the middle and seeing if the paper would fit around it, he motioned for Bailey to join him. The little girl held down the paper on the opposite side of where Stiles was cutting so that the paper was tight and she was away from the blades. Stiles had Bailey man the tape dispenser, telling her when he needed a piece and then taking the piece so she could hold the paper. Multiple times he did very little work, just trying to help her keep the present in the center and the paper straight. It was, after all, her present to her sister. 

Once the present was wrapped, Bailey smiled up at Stiles, looking proud of herself. “I never got to do that much before.”

“We'll now when Ava opens it you can tell her you wrapped it all by yourself.”

“And I can tell my daddy that I did it myself too.”

“And you can do that.”

“Can we go see them?” 

“In a minute, I have to get a message from your dad telling me that it's okay for us to go down there.”

“Okay,” Bailey said, taking her seat back on the bed. 

Stiles moved off the floor and sat beside her. The two sat there for a moment, and didn't move until Stiles's phone vibrated. Stiles didn't check his phone then, just watched Bailey run down the stairs as he made his way behind her.

When Stiles got down to the kitchen, he gave the wrapping paper and other supplies to Derek, who then put them away. The two joined the girls on the couch, and Derek changed the channel to the movie playing on ABC family. They didn't do anything else until the girls had to go to bed.


	9. Wednesday, December 10

Objectively, Stiles knew that there were a few flaws with his plan to sneak up behind Derek when he got to the kitchen. The main flaw was of course that Derek was a werewolf, and would probably (actually who was he kidding) definitely know what Stiles was planning before the younger man even got down the stairs. Stiles chose to ignore the enormous flaw though, and decided that he was going to try to scare the werewolf anyway. Taking away the werewolf fact, the only thing that really kept Stiles from attempting to scare the man was that Derek had his cell phone pressed up against his ear as he paced the kitchen. The conversation between Derek and the person on the other end seemed like a serious one, so instead of doing anything, Stiles took a seat at the kitchen counter and played with the paper towel dispenser while listening in to Derek's half of the conversation. 

"Okay I know that the order is always the same, but I need to change it this year. There was a new circumstance that I hadn't anticipated and so the order has to be changed."

"I know what the fees are and I still need the extra ticket."

"Yes, the same type as the other three. Round trip to North Dakota and back to California. Same dates apply, same type of ticket."

"Yes, just add the ticket to the bill that I get for the other three. I haven't paid for them yet so adding one more will be no big deal."

"Yes, thank you, you too."

Derek sighed when he finally put down the phone. Stiles couldn't help but look at the man with a look of confusion on his face though; what the hell had that conversation even been about? Stiles gathered that it was about four round trip plane tickets to North Dakota, but what was in North Dakota and why was Derek buying plane tickets to get there? 

Since when Derek had set down his phone he had also leant over the counter and put his face in his arms, Stiles had to hold back the ever growing pool of questions that he wanted, no needed, to ask the older man. So he waited for about five minutes, watching as Derek's back rose and fell as he breathed. Stiles had enough patience for the five minutes to pass, but after that, the questions could not be contained. 

"Who were you on the phone with?" He asked, keeping his attention on the paper towel dispenser in front of him. 

Derek took one more breath and then straightened his back so that he was once again standing at full height. "The airline," he replied. 

Stiles raised an eyebrow, there was an answer to one of his questions, but honestly that hadn't been his most pressing question. He had pretty much gotten that information from the eavesdropping he had done. "Why?"

"I needed to buy another plane ticket," Derek replied, sounding like that should have been obvious. Which, when Derek gave that answer, it was. But that hadn't been the answer Stiles was looking for. 

"Why did you need to buy another ticket?"

"Because a person needed one so they can get on the plane."

Stiles glared at the man, thinking about how much he'd really like to punch him in his smug face. "Okay if you want to be a smartass, what person needs a ticket, where is the plane to, and why are you planning to go on a trip there?"

Derek smirked, happy with the reaction he received. "The person is you, we're going to North Dakota, and I'm planning a trip there because I take the girls there every year. We don't get much snow here, so I take them up to a ski lodge, and a cabin that I own, so they can experience the snow."

Stiles glared again, but this time because he couldn't control his own emotions. Now, instead of feeling annoyed with Derek, he could practically feel his heart swell at how cute the older man was. Stiles really hated Derek Hale, and he definitely wanted to shout it from the roof tops at that moment. 

"Why are you glaring?" 

"No reason," Stiles said, replacing the glare with a sheepish smile. "So why do you go two different places?"

"Well I don't know really," Derek said, but he wouldn't look at Stiles when he said it. It made it seem like Derek was hiding something, but Stiles couldn't think of anything that would have to do with a ski lodge that Derek would need to keep to himself. He decided not to pester the man about it though, and let Derek continue on without comment. "I like taking them to both places because at the ski lodge there are things that they can learn and at the cabin we can do more family things, like make snow angels and snow men. In previous years I've gotten the girls ice skating lessons at the ski place, but there's also groups where they can meet kids their age and special things they do for the kids based on their ages. At the cabin though, I get to spend time with them and do things in the snow that we can't normally do here."

"I got ya Der," Stiles said, reaching across the counter to clasp his hand on Derek's shoulder. "Now let’s get this day started, what are the plans?"  
  
"Well I have to call the ski lodge to change the rooming situation, even though I'm not sure what to."

"Why?"

"Because I don't really want to give the girls their own room, and I'm worried that four people in one room is too many."

"Why don't you do a conjoined room or something?"

"I already looked and the ski lodge does not offer that kind of room choice."

"Then why don't we look at the types of rooms that they do offer and look for one that will fit the qualifications that you're looking for?"

Derek sighed. "I'll go get my laptop," he replied, and walked off toward his bedroom. 

When he returned he set the computer up at the kitchen table, and sat down in front of it. Stiles took the seat next to him. 

Derek opened a web page for the ski lodge, but Stiles didn't let him do anything else. The younger man moved the laptop so that it was facing him, and so that he had control. He could feel Derek's eyes glaring holes into the side of his head, and wondered if they were human green or alpha red, but ignored the man. If Derek had already looked through the options, which Stiles figured he had based off of the long suffering sigh that he had let out before getting his laptop, then Stiles figured he didn't need to try again. Stiles knew that Derek didn't exactly love computers, although the love had seemed to grow exponentially since the last time Stiles had seen Derek near electronics, and figured everything would go a lot smoother if he did the research himself. 

"You do know that I'm not completely incompetent," Derek said to Stiles as the younger man looked for room options. 

"I never thought you were," Stiles replied, leaning ever further over the table as he got closer to the computer screen and stuck his tongue out in concentration. 

Derek rolled his eyes at Stiles's posture, but didn't say anything about it. "Then why didn't you let me use the computer?"

"Because if you've already looked you're just going to get frustrated in half the time because you can't find what you want."

Derek huffed. "I would not."

"You totally would. Now stop whining, I found the page with the options. There are standard, deluxe, junior suite, and one and two bedroom suites sizes. Everything has a range of options, so it really depends on how much you're willing to cough up big guy."

Derek read through the descriptions of each type of room, and weighed the options as he went through. He knew that the standard wasn't going to be enough, so he opted to ignore that option completely. Next came the options that each of the next levels had, including bed sizes and numbers, room service, and hot tubs. Those options belonged to the deluxe rooms and up, but he wondered if even the deluxe would be big enough. In the end, he took the deluxe and the junior suite off the list because he didn't think the sizes would be large enough to accommodate four people. Somehow he knew that in the end his choice was going to be the two room suite. It was set up so it had a room inside of a room, so Ava and Bailey could have their own room, but they would be close enough so that Derek and Stiles could hear them, and could make sure that the two girls were okay. He knew that it seemed like too large of a choice for a two day stay, but really he knew from the beginning, the moment that the words had left Stiles's mouth, that that room would be his final choice. 

"It looks like the two room suite is going to work," Derek said, just waiting for Stiles to say something about the choice. 

"Alright, sounds good," Stiles said instead, moving the computer so it was back in front of Derek. 

Instead of taking the thing though, Derek stood up from the table and got his cell phone back out. Before any time at all had passed, he was telling the receptionist that he needed to change his normal room into a two room suite with two queen sized beds in the outer room, and one queen sized bed in the inside room. Meanwhile, Stiles was messing around on Derek's laptop. 

When Derek walked back over to the table, he stood behind Stiles's chair and watched what the man was doing. The website that Stiles was on was unfamiliar to him, but with the staring owl at the top of the page, the magical font spread out across the entire layout of the site, and the name of the site itself, Derek didn't need to be told what the content held. So instead of asking unneeded questions, Derek stood content and watched as Stiles clicked through informational texts and clicked on seemingly unimportant objects that would begin to glow when something important was hidden behind it. Even when there was just some unneeded object, Stiles cheered like he had just found a pot of gold. 

"Why do you cheer like that when you're just finding the same chocolate frog card over and over again?"

Stiles turned around in his seat and glared at Derek. At first he had been surprised that Derek had known what site he was on, but the surprise had faded quickly when he processed what Derek had just said. "Even the same chocolate frog card gets me house points Derek. If I want my house to win I will find that card a million times, and I will find the same ingredient a million times. It's all about the points Derek."

Derek rolled his eyes and moved away from Stiles. He had things to do anyway. 

"Where are you going?" Stiles asked, feeling Derek's presence shift from directly behind him. 

"To cook dinner."

Stiles turned toward the man once again, this time with confusion clearly written across his features. "What do you mean? It's not even noon yet."

"I'm making something that I can reheat later," the older man said, moving around the kitchen as he looked for the ingredients and supplies needed for their mystery dinner. 

"Why are you going to need to reheat dinner?" Stiles said, getting too curious to just sit in his seat and finally migrating toward the counter to watch Derek, and maybe help the sourwolf. 

"Because we're picking up Ava and Bailey after school again and taking them out."

"Out where?"

"To Build-A-Bear Workshop," Derek said, setting a package of bacon, a tub of butter, a container of cream, a thirty two ounce carton of chicken broth, a bag of potatoes, and a block of sharp cheddar cheese on the kitchen counter like the sentence was in no way out of place. 

"I thought you based the activities of the month off of things people do around Christmas. Going to Build-A-Bear isn't really something people plan as a Christmas activity."

"I know, I just want to take the girls because I know they want to go and what better time to go than when I don't have to go to work."

Stiles shrugged, unable to find a flaw in Derek's argument, probably because he wasn't really looking for one, and went back to the computer. 

"You should get an account Derek," Stiles said, flipping through some more background information about the Harry Potter books. "We could be friends on here and we could duel each other. I would totally kick your ass of course, but I can always use the practice."

Derek practically snorted as he chopped up the fourth potato. "Sure Stiles, go ahead and sign me up."

Stiles knew that Derek was being sarcastic, but he still hoped that part of Derek was being genuinely serious. "Don't tempt me like that Derek."

"Do I have to pay for it?" Derek asked. 

"Nope."

"Then go ahead."

Stiles looked at Derek with his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. "This is going to be so much fun," Stiles said, getting over his surprise when Derek didn't look at him or acknowledge what he had just agreed to. Stiles quickly logged out of his own account and switched to registering a new user. 

"Alright," Stiles said, tapping away to put in the first few boxes of information, birthdate and location, and then looking over to Derek. "What's your email?"

"[Dhale77@gmail.com](mailto:Dhale77@gmail.com)," Derek replied. 

Stiles laughed. "And you couldn't have been more original than dhale?"

"It's the email I got for work, it has to be professional."

"And you didn't think to make a new personal one?" 

"Why would I need a personal one? This one works just fine."

"What about for stuff like this?" Stiles said, raising one of his eyebrows, not believing that Derek only used the one for both professional and private emails. "Do you really want Pottermore information to get put in with the emails from your employees?"

Derek shrugged. "Why would it matter?"

Stiles squinted at Derek suspiciously, getting absolutely no response. The older man simply stared back at him, waiting for Stiles to look away first. "Okay then, what password do you want to use then?"

Derek shrugged again. "Make one up for me."

"I don't think you want me to, it'll end up being I love Stiles 69 or something like that."

"Use that then, I don't care."

Stiles went ahead and typed in iloveStiles69 for the password, but went back to staring at Derek the moment that box was completed. "I hate you, I hope you know that."

"Why do you hate me?"

"Because you're frustrating."

"How am I frustrating? I told you to use whatever you want."

Stiles glared, but didn't give Derek an answer. In all honesty, he would have rather had Derek tell him to pick something else, to object to the password simply because it implied that he loved Stiles. He would have rather Derek had picked some boring password so that Stiles didn't get the weird fluttery feeling in his stomach just from Derek _not_ objecting. 

The next, and final, box that had to be completed told how many of the books you had read and how many of the movies you had watched. Stiles didn't know what answer to expect from Derek because ever since he had shown up in Beacon Hills Derek had seemed like a completely new person. Derek could be more of a movie guy and never had read the books, he could be a book guy and never watched the movies, he could have watched and read all of it, or he could have done neither. Honestly, Stiles was ready to hear that Derek had read the books from _The Deathly Hallows_ to _The Sorcerer's Stone_ and had watched the movies in a random order and had completely skipped over watching _The Prisoner of Azkaban_. That didn't seem possible for a rational person to do, but that's what Stiles was expecting. The only way to find out though was to ask Derek. 

"How many of the books have you read and how many of the movies have you seen?"

"All to both," Derek said, making his way back to the table. 

Stiles stared at him. "You've got to be joking."

Derek looked at the man, a look of pure confusion taking over his face. "No, I'm not joking at all. I've read all the books and watched all the movies. Multiple times."

"Who the hell are you?"

Derek's confused look deepened. "Did you assume that I hadn't read or watched any of that?"

Stiles stared at the computer, looking away as Derek sat back down in the seat beside him. He was rubbing a hand over the back of his neck, and knew that Derek would be able to read into that, but couldn't help it. He was nervous, so he rubbed his neck. 

Derek glared. "I don't live under a rock Stiles."

"Well I obviously know that now."

Derek continued to glare as Stiles finished the first part of Derek's new account and started moving toward the next part. When it came time to buy a pet, Derek told Stiles the barn owl would be good, and then Stiles moved on to picking out Derek's wand. 

"Now Derek, this is very important, are you ready for this?" He said, resting his hand on Derek's arm. 

Derek rolled his eyes and pulled his arm away from Stiles, proceeding to cross both of his arms over his chest. "Just get on with it Stiles."

"Fine, I'll answer these first few since they aren't that hard," the younger man said, answering the questions for Derek's height, eye color, and what kind of day he was born on. 

"What do you most pride yourself on?" Stiles asked, turning the computer so that Derek could see his options. "Your determination, imagination, resilience, intelligence, originality, optimism, or kindness?"

"Um," Derek said, looking over the options. "Determination?"

"You don't sound too sure."

"Just go to the next question."

"'Traveling alone down a deserted road, you reach a crossroads. Do you continue left towards the sea, forward towards the forest, or right toward the castle?'"

"Forwards."

"Why am I not surprised sourwolf," Stiles said, immediately regretting it when he realized how long it had been since he had used that name toward Derek. And if the coiled, tense position Derek was now sitting in gave anything away, Stiles knew Derek had realized how long it had been too. Stiles coughed, ploughing through. "Alright next question. 'Do you most fear darkness, fire, heights, small spaces, or isolation?'"

"Fire."

"'In a chest of magical artifacts, which would you choose? The dusty bottle, the old black glove, the golden key, the ornate mirror, the silver dagger, the glittering jewel, or the bound-up scroll?'"

"I'll go with the silver dagger."

Stiles laughed. "Alright, that was the last question for that, let's see what wand chose you."

Within seconds a wand showed up, encased in a small wooden box. Above the box it said walnut with dragon core, thirteen inches, reasonably supple. 

"Once we sort you into a house I'll pull up the information on the different types of wand woods and wand cores. Right now, you need to be sorted." Stiles clapped his hands, having to let his excitement out somehow. 

Derek got back up from the seat, figuring that he could answer the questions as he finished the soup. 

"First question: After you have died, what would you most like people to do when they hear your name? Miss you but smile, ask for more stories about your adventures, think with admiration of your achievements, or I don't care what people think of me after I'm dead: it's what they think of me while I'm alive that counts'?"

"It would be nice for people to ask for more stories wouldn't it? After everything that we did in Beacon Hills?"

Stiles looked at the screen but felt like he was in a different place. In his mind he was traveling through the same streets he could go through right now, but different things were happening. People were dying, and he and his friends were the people trying to save them. Crazed alphas, kanimas, packs of alphas, evil fox spirits, and bezerkers were running rampant and planning their revenge against people that didn't really deserve what they were getting. The evil monsters were fighting, but so were the good ones. And when Stiles thought of everything that happened, he liked to think that they had won in the long run. 

Instead of answering, Stiles clicked the 'Select this option' button and moved on. 

"'What kind of instrument most pleases your ear? Violin, drum, piano, or trumpet?'"

"Violin."

Stiles paused before clicking on anything, trying to pretend he didn't know how close the violin was to the instrument that Paige played. 

"'A troll has gone berserk in the Headmaster’s study at Hogwarts. It is about to smash, crush, and tear several irreplaceable items and treasures, including a cure for dragon pox, which the Headmaster has nearly perfected; student records going back 1000 years, and a mysterious handwritten book full of strange runes, believed to have belonged to Merlin. In which order would you rescue these objects from the troll’s club, if you could?'"

This question took Derek a moment to answer, and Stiles listened as the man did the last few preparations for their dinner, and thought about how to answer the question. Eventually, Derek turned to Stiles, leaning against the counter, and confirmed his order. "Dragon pox cute first, Merlin's book second, and the student records last."

Stiles clicked into the next question but couldn't help making fun of Derek before continuing. "Really Derek? Those records are very important, why didn't you save them first?"

Derek glared, still standing against the counter. “You would've said the same thing no matter what I deemed was least important."

Stiles shrugged. "'If you could have any power, which would you choose? To read minds, turn invisible, have superhuman strength, talk to animals, change the past, or change your appearance at will'?"

When Derek's answer was to change the past, Stiles didn't say a word. He knew what part of the past the man would want to change, and didn't have the heart to make any sort of comment about it. Comforting or otherwise. 

"'Which nightmare would frighten you most? One, standing on top of something very high and realizing suddenly that there are no hand or footholds, nor any barrier to stop you falling. Two, an eye at the keyhole of the dark, windowless room in which you are locked. Three, waking up to find that neither your friends nor your family have any idea who you are. Or four, being forced to speak in such a silly voice that hardly anyone can understand you, and everyone laughs at you.'"

"I think I'm going to go with the heights one."

"'Dusk or dawn'?"

"Dusk."

"Is it because it signals that it's almost time to howl at the moon?"

"Just ask the next question."

Stiles laughed, but did what he was told.  "'Black or white'?"

"Black."

"Okay, so that was the end of the quiz," Stiles said, ignoring Derek when the older man let out a 'thank god'. "And your results are, drumroll please, Gryffindor!"

"That's good right?" Derek said, walking back over to Stiles. 

The younger man glared, but he knew that Derek was joking. 

Stiles pulled up the information about the wand specifics and moved slightly to let Derek read through them, when the older man was ready. He realized quickly that the pot of soup was no longer on the stove, and assumed that it had been put in the fridge to wait until later. Derek was once again sitting in the seat that he was vacated earlier, leaning over Stiles’s shoulder to read the large amount of information on the laptop screen. Stiles could feel Derek's chin just about to touch his shoulder, and had to actively remind himself that he couldn't readjust in his seat just to make it so Derek was resting his chin on Stiles's shoulder. As much as he wanted to do so, he would rather have Derek do it himself.

"What else is there?" Derek asked, staying in his looking over Stiles's shoulder position so he could read the information about the individual parts to his wand. He kept thinking that he needed to move, but he didn't know if he should move closer to Stiles and complete the action he had started, or pull away and act like it had never happened. He wanted to do the former of course, but the war inside his head about which one he _should_ do kept him from doing either. 

"Well now that you've got your wand and you've been sorted into a house, you can start collecting things to earn house points, and going through the interactive telling of the books." Stiles finally moved, making Derek pull away, and smirked at the older man. "And you might want to get really good because we are so having a duel."

"You're a nerd, you know that right?"

"Of course I do," Stiles said, returning his attention to the computer. He logged out of Derek's new account and logged back into his. "And now, slowly but surely, I'm converting you too."

Derek rolled his eyes and got up out of his seat. 

A quick pulse of memory flashed across Stiles's mind, causing him to remember that he wasn't in Beacon Hills to do Christmas related things, go to Build-A-Bear, and play on Pottermore with the various members of the Hale family. His job was at the heart of this trip, and even though he forgot about it at most times, he did remember that he needed to make some sort of progress, and should probably call his boss with said progress. The fact that he hadn't even been trying to make any progress made him feel incredibly guilty, so naturally word vomit was how he brought up a sensitive subject to Derek. 

"Have you ever thought about using online dating?" Stiles asked, keeping his attention on the website in front of him and looking at it like he was a deer in the headlights. "Not that you need to, it's not like you'd have any problem getting anybody that you wanted, what with your Greek god good looks, but maybe it'd be a good thing for you. You'd be able to get out, have conversations with people you're own age, and it really wouldn't take too much time from you being with the girls. I'm sure they wouldn't mind anyway, they just want you to be happy."

All of a sudden Stiles had a hand over his mouth. He tried to move so he could look at Derek, but the man also had a hand on his shoulder to keep him in place. Stiles worried that he had struck a major nerve. 

"No Stiles I have not ever thought about using an online dating site. I prefer to meet people in person first so I can make sure that they're safe. And I'm sure Ava and Bailey just want me to be happy, but I am happy Stiles. I like my life the way it is right now."

Stiles nodded, Derek's hand following the movement. "Sorry," Stiles said after Derek had moved away. 

"It's no big deal," Derek replied. Derek might have said that it was okay, and for all intents and purposes sounded like it was, but there was just a hint of sorrow in Derek's voice, and that was what worried the younger man. 

...

After school, Derek and Stiles were there when the girls came out of the school. Stiles gathered from Ava's and Bailey's nagging questions that Derek had yet to tell the two where they were going. 

"Stiles," Ava whined, "Will you tell us where we're going?"

"Sorry Ava," Stiles said, turning around to look at the young girl. He was aware that Derek kept looking at him, and guessed that the werewolf wondered what he was going to tell the girls. "I've been sworn to secrecy."

"But Stiles," Ava whined. "Can't you just break it? Daddy doesn't have to know."

Stiles laughed, and looked at Derek. "See, I can just break my deal, you don't have to know."

Derek rolled his eyes and Stiles turned back to Ava. "Just trust your dad and I that you both will enjoy where we're going."

"And we're almost there so you won't have to wait much longer," Derek added. 

A few moments later, Derek pulled into the parking lot of a mall that the Hale's did not usually visit. The girls looked at their father, not understanding what they were going to like so much about his trip, but got out of the car when Derek and Stiles did. The four walked through the mall, the twins holding the hands of at least one adult. Derek led the way, even though the four of them were walking in a straight line, and soon found the store that he had been looking for. When he stopped and looked at his daughters, the girls had surprised expressions on their faces. They couldn't believe what they were seeing, and looked up at Derek to confirm. When the older man nodded, the girls smiled so wide Stiles was afraid that their faces were going to crack in half. 

Derek, Stiles, Ava, and Bailey made their way into the store, the twin’s first picking out the animal that they wanted. Both of them picked a bear, but Ava's bear had white fur while Bailey's had very light brown fur. The two girls looked back at Derek once they had picked out their bears, seeming to ask him if what they chose was okay. He nodded, and the girls went off to stuff their bears. 

There was a couple kids in line before the twins, so they stood and talked about what they had chosen, and why they had chosen it, while Derek and Stiles stood next to them, out of the line, to keep them safe. 

"It seems like this was a good idea," Stiles said, gently elbowing Derek in the side. 

"Yeah, they've always loved stuffed animals, I was hoping that they would like creating their own."

The girls moved up in line, and when they got to the lady that worked the stuffing machine, Bailey pushed Ava in front of her so that he sister would have to go first. Derek and Stiles noticed, and Stiles wondered at first if Bailey did it because she thought the worker was scary, but when he saw that the woman was in her mid-thirties, and had the biggest smile possible on her face, he guessed that that wasn't it. 

"Hi sweetie," the woman said, smiling at Ava, "My name is Elizabeth, what's yours?"

"Ava," the young girl said, looking back at her sister as soon as she had told the woman her name. "Miss Elizabeth, could my sister do this with me?"

"Of course she can," the woman said, smiling at the twins as Ava pulled her sister up next to her. "And what's your name?" Elizabeth asked Bailey. 

Bailey played with the fur on her unstuffed bear as she looked at Elizabeth. "My name's Bailey."

"Those are very pretty names girls, now would you like your bears to be soft and cuddly, hard and firm, or somewhere in between?"

"Soft and cuddly please," the twins said at the same time. 

The woman smiled and turned to the machine to make Ava's and Bailey's unstuffed bears become soft and cuddly. 

After about a minute of waiting, the woman turned back to the girls, holding the white bear, the light brown bear, and a small wicker basket in her hands. "Okay Ava and Bailey," she said, holding the basket out to show the young girls the different types of hearts she could put in her bear. "What heart do you want your friend to have?"

Ava and Bailey looked at the hearts, trying to decide. Half of the hearts in the basket were fully red, and the other half had a red and white plaid pattern. After a few minutes for decision making, Ava took a red heart and Bailey took a plaid heart. 

"Now here's the really important part girls," Elizabeth said, crouching down so that she was at eye level with the young girls. "You girls are going to give all your heart and life to your new best friends, okay?"

The twins nodded. 

"Okay show me your bear’s hearts."

The twins held out the hearts, showing them to Elizabeth. 

"Now to start you need to shake the heart to get it started, and tap it three times so your bear has a heartbeat."

The girls took their hearts and shook them, then laid them flat in the palm of their hand and tapped it three times. 

"Now put the heart on your forehead so your bear is super smart like you."

The girls placed the hearts on their foreheads, and Ava looked over at her sister, causing the two to giggle. 

"Do your best dance move so your bear dances as well as you do."

Ava and Bailey spun around, dancing in their spots, laughing the whole time. Derek and Stiles watched the two and laughed also. 

"Put it on your cheek so it has lots of smile," Elizabeth said, wide smile still in place, and the girls did as they were told. "Now put it on your other cheek so it has even more smiles."

The girls did it. 

"Hold it in the air so your bear grows tall."

The twins got on their tip toes and put the heart as high up in the air as they could. 

"Daddy," Bailey said, looking over at Derek as she held the heart up. "It'll grow to be as tall as you!"

Derek smiled at his daughter, but was pretty sure she hadn’t seen because right as he did Elizabeth took her attention back by saying "Put it on the person next to you so it will always have lots of friends."

The two girls looked at each other and placed their hearts on each other. Ava put hers on her sister’s forehead, claiming "my bear is going to steal all your smarts Bailey," with a giggle. Not to be out done, Bailey out her heart on her sisters cheek and said "not before my bear steals all of your smiles."

Everyone laughed at the two. 

"Now this is a very important part girls, are you ready?" Elizabeth asked. 

"Yes!" The girls answered. 

"Alright, I need you to squeeze it tight, close your eyes, and make a wish. Can you do that for me?"

Instead of answering, the twins closed their eyes, holding the hearts against their own hearts, and squeezed them. Elizabeth waited until the two had opened their eyes before saying anything more. 

"Alright, here's the last thing. Take your hearts and kiss each side so that your wish stays in the bear’s heart. Once you do that, I'll help you give your bears their hearts and finish them up so you can move on to the next station."

Ava and Bailey kissed both sides of the hearts and looked up at Elizabeth. The woman held out the bears to their corresponding twin and had the girls gently place the satin heart into the stuffed bear. After that Elizabeth gave the bears the final stitch that would hold their stuffing in, gave the girls their stuffed bears, and let them go into the next station. 

"That was really cute," Stiles said, bumping into Derek as they followed the girls to the Wash Me station. 

Derek smiled in agreement but didn't say anything. Within no time, the twins were looking back at the two adults and motioning for them to hurry. The girls had already made it to the next station and were standing next to the fake bathtub that they were supposed to wash their bears in. 

Bailey was standing the closest, obviously taking the chance to do something first, and was waiting for one of the adults to help her. Derek stepped up next to her, while Stiles stood with Ava, and read the instructions. Derek had his daughter place her foot on the small pedal at the foot of the tub, and handed her a brush. When he told her to start pushing down on the pedal, she did so while holding her bear in one hand and brushing it’s fur with the other. 

When Bailey was done cleaning her bear, Ava took her turn, and then the four made their way to isles upon isles of clothes.

While the girls went around and looked for the perfect outfit for their bears, Derek and Stiles wandered around, always close enough so that they could see Ava and Bailey, and looked at the outfits too. Stiles noticed that these bears could pretty much wear anything, they could have a shirt and pants or a dress or a firefighter outfit or a police uniform, and the list went on. 

Stiles walked over to one of the racks and picked up one of the outfits he saw. It was a little maid’s uniform, complete with a little hat. He showed the outfit to Derek, raising his eyebrows multiple times. Derek just rolled his eyes and went to see how the girls were doing. Because Derek had been so quick to just walk away, Stiles knew that Derek was at least a little embarrassed. It was something that Stiles had learned back in Beacon Hills; if Derek walked away from a conversation, especially if he walked away and went to do something that didn't _need_ to be done, he was probably blushing and was even more embarrassed by that. Stiles, with a grin on his face, followed after the man. 

Ava and Bailey both picked out outfits for their bears: Ava picked an outfit that included a sparkly pink tank top and a pair of olive green shorts and Bailey picked an outfit that included a white shirt that had a cluster of flowers on it and a turquoise skirt that also had a few flowers on it. 

"Is this what you want?" Derek said, holding both the outfits in one of his hands. 

The girls nodded and led the group off to the next station before even waiting for a response from Derek. 

The next station was where the birth certificates were made for the kid’s new best friend. There was a set of four special computers that the children sat down in front of and either typed out the certificate themselves, or had their parent help them. The twins got to the computers and sat down, but both looked up at Stiles and Derek expectantly. The two adults looked at each other and Derek told Stiles to help Ava and he would help Bailey. Once they were, uncomfortably, positioned so they could type over the girl's heads, they started asking for the information and filling it out.

When the girls were done, and Derek had paid, Ava and Bailey climbed back into the car, holding their bears in one arm, and the box for the bears in the other. 

"Ava!" Bailey exclaimed, examining her box as Derek and Stiles got into the car. "We can color the boxes!"

"They'll have pretty places to sleep!"

Bailey looked over at her sister. "Annie is going to be sleeping in my bed; you're making Bianca sleep in her box?"

"No!" Ava said, rearranging how her bear was sitting so she was looking the thing in the face. "I would never do that to you!"

The two girls went relatively silent after the conversation, which caused Stiles to turn back around to see what was going on. When he did so, he found that the boxes were discarded on the floor, the bears were being held tight by their owners, and the girls were fast asleep, mouths slightly agape and their heads tilted back against the head rests.

"You should see your daughters," Stiles said, fondness creeping into his voice as he quickly, and quietly, took a picture of the two. 

Derek tried sitting up higher in his seat, hoping to see the two in the rearview mirror, but found that they were positioned too low. "Just show me the picture when we get home."

Stiles nodded, feeling overwhelmed by the way Derek said the word home. This entire time, even though it was still a small amount, Stiles had worked hard to make sure that he addressed Derek's home as such. He tried hard not to say it was home, or even to think it, because it wasn't his home, no matter how much he would like it to be. His mission in Beacon Hills was to find someone that would make Derek happy, because that was going to make the girls happy. He wasn't to get attached, and he knew that by letting the one word get to him, he was doing what he wasn't supposed to. But really, he couldn't help it if Derek was just going to throw it out there like he just had. 

The car went silent as Stiles was stuck in his own thoughts, the girls were sleeping, and Derek was driving. Stiles assumed that Derek was still making sure that the girls were okay, that he was listening to their heartbeats and breathing rates, and somehow that made his heart want to collapse just a little more. This new Derek was too domestic for Stiles to take. 

With the knowledge that they were safe while Derek was driving, Stiles started getting comfortable in his seat. He moved the chair into a more leaned back position, making sure that Bailey had enough room behind him, and spread his limbs so he wasn't as confined as he was when he was sitting straight. His legs were spread and stretched so he was touching the very front of his leg room, and one arm was lying on his stomach while the other one was in the space where the gear shift was. Until he had accidentally brushed his hand, Stiles hadn't realized that Derek had his hand in almost the same spot. 

Stiles blushed, hoping Derek thought he was already asleep, and tried his hardest not to think about the momentary touch that was almost nothing, the heat radiating from Derek's skin and into Stiles's in that millisecond of time. No matter what he did, or tried to think of, the thought of holding Derek's hand wouldn't leave his mind. 

Stiles had the overwhelming urge to move his hand just slightly, and clasp Derek's hand for the rest of the ride home.


End file.
